The World Up There
by Bluemoon375
Summary: For years Keira has lived down below the mines in solitude, believing that she may never return to the world above. After being found by Jack, however, those thoughts begin to fade. But what troubles wait for her above?
1. Solitude

Deep below Forget-Me-Not Valley in a cavern hidden away inside the mine lives a young princess, or at least she had been one. Her name is Keira.

She was once the fair princess of a powerful kingdom that stretched on for miles. She was often believed to be the most gorgeous girl in the entire world and was subject to hundreds of suitors, many who had come to hear her beautiful voice. But then one day an evil witch stumbled upon the land and immediately despised her. For reasons unknown stole her voice and then banished her to live beneath the surface for all eternity, never to be seen again. That was long time ago.

Now her family, subjects, and kingdom are all but a distant memory of hers. Her new kingdom to rule over was now a small dark room hundreds of floors below the surface that contained only a bed and notepad that the witch had left her. At first she used the notepad to keep track of how long she how long she would remain there, but as days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months she quickly stopped. It was just too depressing for her to see that she could truly be cursed to live below the surface forever. She had always hoped that maybe someday a knight in shining armor would break down the barrier blocking her from the outside to rescue her but she knew in her heart the chances of that were slim to none.

As time went by she found herself feeling getting weaker with each passing day. The witch had been courteous enough to allow her to live without relying on food and water but it was taking its toll on her health. Initially she was able to move about the small cavern without any trouble but now she was lucky if she could take more than two steps before having to get back in bed. She didn't mind though, her bed was the only thing that could make her happy now. When she lay in bed asleep she was able to dream of whatever she wanted. She could dream about past memories of her family, her knight on his way to rescue her but more importantly, she could dream of the surface world that still sat above her.

* * *

**A/N: Pretty short chapter but I felt it was a bit necessary for starting this story. I'll likely end up updating this every few days like I did for my previous fic. **


	2. Saved?

Up in Forget-Me-Not valley a new spring day was beginning as the local farmer Jack made his out of his barn and down the road into town. He had moved to the valley a year ago to take over his deceased father's farm and was so far getting along just fine. He grew healthy crops, raised strong animals and had become friends with just about everyone in town, including the resident Witch Princess, yet he couldn't help but feel like his life was missing something.

"Hey Jack." He heard a tough sounding yet friendly voice call out to him.

"Oh, hey Nami." He said as he turned around to see Nami walking up to him.

"Where are you off to this early?" She asked in her usual quiet voice.

"Carter asked me yesterday to help him in the mine today so I figured if I started early he wouldn't keep me there that long." He replied.

"Oh, well I won't keep you then." She said sounding disappointed.

Before Jack could say anything Nami turned around and began to head towards the inn. Shrugging off the brief conversation Jack continued to head towards the mine up near the waterfall. As he neared the excavation site he heard what sounded like arguing coming from the main cavern and quickly headed down to see what the problem was.

"Come on Carter," Flora said. "I promise I won't mess up this time."

"For the last time no." He replied. "Beside's we've already had curry rice three days in a row now."

"What's going on down here?" Jack asked as he entered.

"It's nothing Jack, just Carter being stubborn again." Flora explained rather rudely.

"I'm the stubborn one here?" Carter asked sarcastically.

"Are you guys really going to have this fight again?" Jack asked.

"We wouldn't have to if Carter could just learn to accept my cooking while we're digging her together." Flora said.

"Flora I just… it's… Bah, I can't deal with this right now." Carter said before leaving the site mumbling to himself.

"I'm sorry about that ." Flora said after he was gone.

"It's alright, so what are you going to do now then?" He asked.

"I guess I'll have to go and apologize to him. Were you going to do any work here today?" She asked.

"Well I had planned to help you and Carter dig but I guess I'll do some work in one of the mines." He replied. "I want to see if I can get deeper than the 200th floor this time."

"Just be careful down there Jack, you know how much Carter dislikes having to go down there to get you when you pass out." She said.

"I'll be fine. I brought some extra supplies with me this time." He told her.

And with that Jack began his decent.

* * *

Keira awoke down in her prison to the faint noise of what sounded like rocks falling down. She quickly sat up and scanned the room with her eyes but saw that nothing had changed. She started to place her head back down on her pillow and shut her eyes when suddenly she heard the same again only this time it was louder. From what she could tell it seemed that the noise was coming from floor above her.

"_Could… could this finally be the day?" _She thought.

Keira continued to listen to the sounds above as they proceeded to get louder and louder every few minutes. Then when it sounded as if someone was on the floor right above her she could no longer wait and removed the sheets that covered her to see what all the commotion was. She moved so she was sitting on the edge of her bed and placed her feet on the ground. She stood up and slowly took a step forward and when her leg didn't give she proceed to walk towards the barriers of rocks that blocked the entrance, taking each step as slowly as she could. She was only about halfway across the room when she nearly fell to the ground, but luckily she was able to catch herself and get back up.

When she reached the barrier she leaned up against it and placed her eye up against one of the small cracks in the pile and looked through it.

_Darkness..._

Suddenly she noticed as a small crack of light began to reveal itself atop the ceiling of the room. As more light poured into cavern as the crack got wider she was able to make out the shape of what appeared to be stairs right beneath it. Her heart began to beat faster with each passing second, getting louder with one that it almost covered up the sound of digging coming from above. Then when the shape of a hoe broke through the dirt above causing the rest of the earth blocking the stairs to simply collapse her eyes widened with anticipation. She felt completely flooded with joy as she watched a pair of legs begin to make their way down the stairs but those feelings partially subsided when she finally saw Jack in full light.

"_A commoner…?" _She thought a little disappointed as she looked at him._ "That's my hero?"_

She watched as he made his way around the room but quickly became fearful for him when she noticed a pair of red eyes appear in the darkness behind him. She opened her mouth to try and warn him but nothing came out, she had been down there so long without anyone to talk to that she forgot she was no longer in possession of her voice. The creature emerged from the shadows and into the light to reveal a small black chick that began to chirp angrily at Jack.

"Another one of you guys?" He said as he faced it.

He then raised his hoe up and smashed it into the chicken causing it to disappear in a cloud of dust, much to Keira's surprise. Wiping the sweat from his forehead he began to rummage in his rucksack looking for something, when she noticed multiple pairs of red eyes coming from all corners of the rooms now. She then watched as two large black chickens lunged at him, knocking him over while a large of amount of small chicks began to jump on top of him.

Keira looked away in horror covering her mouth as tears formed in her eyes despite the fact that she made no noise. She listened to sounds of fighting coming from the other half of the room and could only infer that her savior was losing due the scene she had just witnessed. Eventually the sounds subsided and the cavern fell silent. Confused, she placed her eye up to the crack in the barrier again and looked around but saw nothing. She was about to back away from the wall to return to bed, and another eternity of prolonged slumber and depression, when there was a brief flash of light and before she knew what was happening she found herself falling to the floor hitting her head against the hard rock below.

* * *

**A/N: Hm, R&R, next chapter soon all that other fluff and such. (Can't think of anything to put here)**


	3. Strange

_H… hey! Are you ok!..._

…_Wake up…!_

_Oh man this can't be good…_

_Hang on… I'll get you nice and comfortable here…_

…Y_ou… you can't be dead… you still have a pulse …_

…

_Come on… wake up…_

…

Keira felt a throbbing pain in the side of her head as she slowly opened her eyes to find that she was back in her bed with someone sitting next to her, though she couldn't tell her it was since her vision was a bit blurred. As it quickly got better she was relieved to see that it was the farmer from earlier seated upon a rock he likely brought in from the other room. He had few bruises and peck marks on his arms and a small scratch above his eye but aside from that he seemed to be fine.

"Thank goddess you're awake." Jack said as he began smile. "I was beginning to think that you'd never come to."

She simply stared at him with her eyes half open as she continued to slowly breathe, still recovering. "…"

"I don't know what happened but you seemed to have hit your head on something hard." He told her as he placed his hand on the side of her head where it hurt.

She moved her arm down and pointed towards a notepad with a pencil resting inside of it sitting on the floor near the bed.

"Huh, you want this?" He asked as he picked it up.

She nodded her head and Jack placed it in her hands. She then opened it and proceeded to write something down.

"Thank you, my names Keira. What's yours?" She wrote.

"My names Jack…" He replied unable to help but sound a little confused. "Is there any reason wrote that instead of just asking me that?"

She began to write in her notebook again. "I can't speak, I've lost my voice."

"I'm sorry." He said.

"It's ok. How did you manage get all the way down here?" She wrote.

"I come to this mine a lot actually, this is the first time I managed to get down this far." He said.

"But you look like you're a peasant; you shouldn't be working in a place like this." She wrote.

"A peasant?" He exclaimed before looking closely at her. "How… how long have you been down here?"

She placed the pencil against the notebook to begin writing again but after thinking for a moment she placed the pencil back in it and closed it shut with a saddened look on her face.

"I… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you upset. I was just curious that's all." He told her.

She reopened the notepad and began to write again, trying not to cry. "I've been down here forever. It's my curse to live down here alone forever." It read, though a few of the words were illegible after being stained by some stray tears.

"Curse? Who would do this to you?" He asked.

"A witch, she came to the kingdom and forced me to live down here after she stole my voice." She wrote.

"_Witch? Like the Witch Princess I know? No, she said she hasn't caused any mischief in years… Still." _He thought. "Wait, what kingdom?"

"You mean it's gone?" She wrote.

Jack nodded his head slowly as Keira lead back against the headboard of her bed.

"I don't get, I've never heard of this ancient kingdom that was here but somehow you've managed to outlive it. It doesn't make sense." Jack said.

"The witch, when she sent me down here she made me and my suffering immortal and allowed me to live without food. I just never thought I'd be down here this long." She wrote.

As they both sat there the brief period of silence between them was broken by the low sound of Keira's stomach growling, a first in years.

"That's strange, that's never happened before." She wrote.

"You're just hungry that's all." Jack told her as he began to rummage through his rucksack. "Here take this."

He removed his hand from the bag to reveal to her a small red apple. She took it from him and examined it closely since it was the first time she had seen one in a while. She took a bite out of it and began to smile seeming to indicate that she was satisfied with it.

"I've haven't had anything to eat since I came down here, thanks." She wrote once she was finished.

"I can go and bring you more if you'd like." Jack told her.

"That'd be very thoughtful of you." She wrote.

"Alright, are you going to be ok down here alone?" He asked as he stood up.

She thought for a moment before writing. "I'll be fine. Thank you for all your help."

As Keira watched him leave she couldn't help but feel like she had made the right choice despite her best wishes to return to the surface. If she had asked him to bring her with him when he returned to the surface she would have felt like an outsider up there, society seemed to have changed too much for her to understand.

Jack on the other hand had other things on his mind. He had just emerged from the mine after meeting the most mysterious girl in the world and need to get somethings clarified. Yet with all the different explanations he thought of towards why she could be down there running through his mind one thing refused to leave his head.

"_She… she's kind of pretty."

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_

_**A/N: Glad to see that some of you are enjoying this, Keira just doesn't get enough stories here. Anyway please R&R and you'll be seeing the next chappy soon!**_


	4. Scared for Her

"Let's see, no not that one…" The Witch Princess mumbled to herself as she looked through the shelves of her shack. "No, no…"

**KNOCK! KNOCK!**

"Now who could that be?" She asked herself as she went and opened to door to find Jack. "Hello Jack, it's been awhile."

"I know, but it's just that I need to ask you something." He replied as she motioned for him to step inside.

"What is it?" She asked as she shut the door after he stepped in.

"With Princess," He began before taking a deep breath. "Does the name Keira mean anything to you?"

The mention of Keira caused the Witch Princess to freeze up for a moment. "I… I haven't heard that name in a long, long time." She said slowly.

"So you know who she is?" He asked.

"I knew her long time ago Jack; I mean a _long_ time ago. Back when she stilled lived up here on the surface she stole something from me… something that meant a lot to me." She told him.

"What? What did she steal from you?" He asked.

"It doesn't matter Jack… Not anymore…" She replied in a sad tone.

"Is that why you cursed her to live down in the mine forever?" He asked.

"Wait, how do you know about her and her curse?" She asked.

"Earlier today I was down in the mines fighting some of those dark creatures when one of the walls on the lowest floor opened up and I found her." He explained.

"You mean the barrier fell down?" She asked.

"Yes." He replied.

"And you just left her there?" She asked sounding a little worried.

"Well yah, I mean she said she'd be fine down there…" He replied.

"Oh Jack this isn't good, not good at all." She said.

"What do you mean? What's wrong?" He asked.

"I made it so that once the barrier falls the curse would be lifted from her." She told him.

"What does that mean?" He asked.

"She's no longer immortal; she's just like you and the rest of the town. More importantly she needs food now, she could starve down there." She explained.

"Oh man, I only gave her an apple. I have to go back." He said about to leave.

"No Jack." She said placing her hand on his shoulder to stop him. "You'll tire yourself out too fast."

"But I can't leave her down there alone, she could die!" He shouted in a panicked tone.

"I know that but if you're constant go up and down the mine to help her you'll only hurt yourself." She said.

"But what am I suppose to do?" He asked, still sounding scared.

"I don't know Jack; I never really thought she'd be down there this long." She replied in an apologetic tone. "I can't tell you what to do about her Jack, I'm sorry."

"Alright, thanks for being honest with me." He said as he turned around and placed his hand on the doorknob.

"Finest curry…" The Witch Princess whispered as she looked at the ground, just loud enough for Jack to hear her.

"What?" He asked.

"Finest curry, that's her favorite food." She said again quietly.

Jack simply nodded his head in thanks and then proceeded to leave the house.

* * *

After leaving the Witch Princess's house Jack made his way over to the inn in order to get food for the following day.

"Hey Ruby." He said to her as she stood behind the counter when he entered the inn.

"Welcome Jack." She greeted. "How can I help you?"

"If you're not too busy I was wondering if you could make me some finest curry." He said.

"I'd love to; I haven't cooked anything in ages. I'll be right back." She told him as she went back in the kitchen.

Jack began to stand around in lobby of inn when Nami began to make her way down the stairs nearby.

"Hello again Nami." He said as she approached him.

"Oh hello Jack." She said happily giving him a quick smile.

"You seem pretty happy about something." He said taking note of her mood.

"Oh, it's just that I looked at the calendar and saw what was coming up." She replied.

"Really? What's coming up?" He asked.

"Why Spring Thanksgiving of course, how could you have forgotten? Don't you have someone special in town?" She asked as she leaned into him a bit causing him to slightly blush.

"Well uh, not at the moment… But that could always change." He replied a little nervously.

"That's good to hear." She said with another smile before exiting the inn.

About a minute after Nami left Ruby reentered the room carrying a plate covered with saran wrap.

"Here you go Jack." She said as she handed it over to him.

"Thanks Ruby, how much do I owe you?" He asked.

"Oh it's alright Jack you don't need to pay me. I love to cook." She replied.

"Really? Thanks." He said.

With the plate in hand, Jack left the inn.

The sun was barely peaking over the horizon of the valley when Jack left his house the following morning. He had woken up early in order to quickly reheat the serving of curry he had gotten from the inn the previous day before heading towards the mine. The town and sky were just barely waking up when he reached the dig site and began his decent. He could waste no time, after all, if what the Witch Princess had told him was indeed true he would have to act fast in order to reach Keira in time.

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**A/N: R&R and enjoy. And despite what's said near the start, it does still matter.**


	5. Story of Past

"Gah! I do not have time for you!" Jack shouted to yet another dark creature as he swiped his hoe at it.

He was only a few floors away from the 250th one and the mass swarms of dark creatures that were trying to stop him weren't helping at all. After clearing the floor of the remaining creatures he stopped for a moment and leaned against the wall to catch his breath. The Witch Princess was right about how he could tire himself out visiting Keira but prayed that was the only she would be right about.

He let out a sigh of relief when he reached the final floor and found that there were no enemies waiting for him in the area and that the passage leading to Keira was still open, but quickly became worried when he saw her. She was sitting in bed hunched over, holding her notebook close to her chest, seemingly in pain, while taking slow deep breaths.

"Keira!" Jack shouted as he ran up to her side as she slowly looked up at him.

"Jack," She wrote weakly. "I don't feel well."

"You need food Keira." He said as he removed his rucksack and carefully removed the plate of finest curry from it. "Here, take this."

She took the plate from him and stared at it for a moment, almost in disbelief at seeing her favorite food in a long time. She placed it aside for a moment and picked up her notebook about to write something.

"No, eat first." Jack said in a commanding yet caring tone, causing her to stop. "You can write to me when you're finished."

Keira complied and handed the notebook to Jack before picking up the plate and removing the wrapping covering it and the fork inside. She began to slowly eat as he sat back on the rock at her bedside, sighing once again in relief that he was able to help her. Once she finished she held the plate out for him which he exchanged with her for the notebook.

"Thank you again Jack, you really helped me. I feel much better now." She wrote. "But how did you know I liked finest curry?"

"Well… it was just a lucky guess really." He lied. He just wasn't sure if she'd enjoying hearing about how he was friends with the person who caused her so much harm.

"I guess I was lucky too today. I really appreciate you coming down here again. I didn't really expect to see you so soon" She wrote.

"Well it's not like I can just leave a beautiful looking girl like you all alone down here alone." He said causing her to blush a bit.

"You sound just like every other guy I've ever met, Jack." She wrote.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"I used to be the princess of a kingdom hat apparently use to exist back when I lived up on the surface.. It was one of the most powerful in the world and everyone here prospered. Hundreds of men wanted me to be their bride but I could never accept any of their offers." She wrote.

"How come?" He asked.

"They never seemed to really be interested in me as a person. They only seemed to enjoy me because of my beauty and voice." She wrote.

"I bet it sounded lovely." He said.

"It was, until it was stolen by that evil witch." She wrote causing Jack to become little nervous. "Then there were others who seemed to only be interested in the power I held. Being the princess anyone I wed would've become the next king after my father who was already ill at the time of my disappearance. The trouble I probably caused him and my mother."

"I'm sorry." He said.

"I began to regret my choice of not choosing a suitor when I had the chance about a year after I lived down here. I just thought that maybe if I had gotten married there would have been somebody dedicated to coming and rescuing me so I would have been able to returned to the surface sooner. I had always imagined myself being rescued by a strong knight of some sort." She wrote making Jack appear a little upset. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean it like that."

"It's alright." He replied. "You know I can bring you up there now? I wouldn't mind."

"I just can't, it just doesn't seem right to me anymore. Too much time has passed for me up there." She wrote.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"Yes." She wrote before scribbling down more words after a moment. "I'm feeling a little sleepy now Jack."

"You go sleep, I'll stop by again tomorrow with more food for you." He told her.

Keira nodded her head and placed it back on her pillow, gentle shutting her eyes as she did before peacefully falling asleep. Once he saw she was sound asleep Jack got up from his seat on the rock and made his way over to the staircase leading up, looking back at her before ascending the stairs.

* * *

It was about mid morning when he reached the main floor of the dig site to find Flora busy working.

"Jack, I didn't know you were here." She said as he emerged from the carven entrance.

"Yah, I came here a little early to uh, get some work done down there." He replied.

"Really? What's so important that you had to get here before me and Carter?" She asked sounding a little demanding.

"Well it's just that I was… um… hoping maybe I could finally reach the bottom of the mine." He lied. "Where is Carter anyway?"

"Oh he's out in town today." She said giving a slight blush. "He said he had some business to care of for tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? What's tomorrow?" He asked.

"Spring thanksgiving of course, how could you forget?" She asked.

"Probably because I'm not in a relationship right now." He replied.

"Really? I would have never guessed; you seem like you're close friends with just about everyone here in the valley." She said.

"I know but everyone's already got someone of their own it seems." He said as he began to walk towards the stairs leading out.

"Not Nami." She told him.

* * *

**A/N: I had another one of my "Hm, let's split this chapter in half for flowtivity (- not really a word)" ideas and did just that which allowed be to update this fairly quickly. Next chapter should be up soon as usual so please R&R if you wish.**


	6. Spring Thanksgiving

Upon returning home from the dig site, Jack dropped his hoe in front of the door before walking up to the mirror and looking at his reflection. He had gained a few more injuries from all the fighting he had done going to visit Keira but so far none of them seemed serious. He then walked over to his bed collapsing on it from exhaustion. It was still around ten in the morning and after rushing up and down the mine with only a few hours of sleep from the previous night he was terribly tired.

He woke up later that day and looked over at his clock to see it was now four in the afternoon. He leaned up and briefly stretched his arms before getting out of bed and walking over to the cabinet. Opening it, he looked through the shelves and pulled out a bag of flour before going to the fridge and removing a stick of butter and an egg. While still half-asleep, he proceeded to make use of his kitchen and prepared a small plate of cookies for spring thanksgiving. Once they were finished he placed them in the fridge before once again falling onto his bed into a deep sleep.

The next day Jack awoke at his average time of six in the morning and quickly got out of bed and went to the fridge and removed the plate of cookies along with a cooked fish he had wrapped in it from a while back and placed them both in his rucksack. He then picked up his hoe, scrapping off some of the dirt on it, and then began to make his way to the mine for another visit to Keira.

Just like the previous two trips the caverns below the valley were littered with dark creatures, but luckily he was getting better at avoiding their attacks and was finding it easier to handle them. When he arrived at Keira's floor he was happy to see that she was still asleep just like he had left her, and not in any pain like the previous day. Deciding to let her rest he took a seat on the rock at her side and seemed to enter a trance as he watched her as she slept. She seemed so relaxed and peaceful as she lay in bed that it put a warm fuzzy kind of feeling in his heart.

"_She looks so beautiful…"_ He thought to himself.

He glanced down at the floor beside the bed and saw her journal lying on the ground open. He picked it up and began skim through it for a brief moment. Once he saw, however, that it was a personal diary entry of her's and not her writings from the previous day he closed it shut and rested it on his lap. A few moments after he did so, Keira's eyes began to slowly open as she leaded up and rubbed them before looking at him. He held out her notebook and she took it from him and began to write something down.

"How long have you been down here Jack?" She wrote.

"Not too long." He replied. "When I came in I saw that you were still sleeping and decided not to disturb you."

"That was nice of you. Did you bring me any food for today?" She wrote.

"Of course I did, I wouldn't want you to starve." He said as he removed the cooked fish from his rucksack. "You don't know how much it hurt me to see you in such pain yesterday."

"I'm sorry." She wrote before taking the plate from him.

"You have nothing to be sorry about Keira. It was my fault, I should've given more food when I first found you. I'm sorry that I hurt you like that." He said.

He then watched as she proceeded to eat the meal he brought her. She only finished about half of the fish before placing the wrapping over the remaining half and setting it aside before picking up her notebook again.

"Thank you." She wrote.

"You're welcome." He replied.

Keira then took a deep breath before writing. "Tell me how it is up there, Jack."

"Where? The surface?" He asked as she nodded her head in response. "Well I'm not sure if much has really changed. That kingdom of yours is apparently gone though and has been replaced with the small region of Forget-Me-Not Valley."

"What's it like there?" She asked.

"It's a peaceful place with a town and two small farms, I own one of them. The people there are pretty friendly and always have fun at the festivals each season."

"Festivals?" She wrote.

"They're these days where the whole town gets together and celebrates a special event. There's the Starry Night Festival, the Harvest Festival, the crop and animal judging ones… Oh yeah, that reminds me, today is Spring Thanksgiving."

"Spring Thanksgiving?" She wrote.

"It's a day for guys to go and give special treats to the girl they like." He said as he pulled the plate of cookies he made. "Like these, here have one."

She reached out and took the cookie from his hands. She had never had, let alone seen, one before but knowing Jack wouldn't do anything to hurt her decided to eat it. After taking a bite out of it she formed a smile that seemed to once more indicate her satisfaction with his gift of food.

"I take it you like it?" He asked in a playful tone as she finished it.

"It tastes so sweet. We never had any of those up on the surface when I lived there." She wrote.

"Here, you can have another one." He said as he handed her another one before standing up. "I'd really love to stay but I have to take care of some business up in town. I'll be sure to stop by tomorrow."

Keira watched as Jack left her side and walked up the stairs in the other room, feeling a little saddened, before looking down at the cookie he had left in her hands.

"_It's a day for guys to go and give special treats to the girl they like…"_

_

* * *

_

When Jack returned to the surface it was just nearing around eleven o'clock. After taking a brief rest on one of the rocks surrounding the dig site he began to walk towards the inn, hoping to catch Nami there. Luckily, he only had gotten to the bridge crossing over the river when she approached him from the trail leading there from the Goddess pond, seeming to be looking for him.

"Hey Jack." She said as she came up to him.

"Hey Nami, I was just looking for you." He said.

"Really, what for?" She asked.

"Well I wanted to give you these." He replied as he removed the plate of cookies from his rucksack again.

"Oh Jack, are these really for me?" She asked in a delighted tone.

"Yah, I made them myself." He told her as he handed them to her.

"Hm, there's not many of them here." She said taking note of the few missing that he had given to Keira.

"Well, that's because I… err… was a little hungry earlier and ate a few." He lied. "Sorry."

"That's alright; I mean it's the sweet of you to do this for me." She said.

Before Jack could say anything else he was soon surprised as Nami leaned into him and gave him a small kiss on the cheek, leaving him speechless for a moment.

"See you later." She said with a slight giggle as she began to walk to the inn.

"Yeah… later." Jack said a little nervously after she had left him. _"What am I getting myself into?"

* * *

_

**A/N: Updates may come a bit less frequent for a while because I'm currently busy with a few other obligations at the moment but it shouldn't be too severe. R&R.**


	7. Sorry

In the next few days that followed Jack began to become overwhelmed with stress, both mentally and physically. He found himself stuck between two girls, Keira, who only seemed to see him as her kind savoir, and Nami, who appeared to be romantically interested in him. To him, he cared about Keira because he was the only person in the world, aside from the Witch Princess, who knew about her existence and was the only one who could help her, while his supposed relationship with Nami felt forced to him.

Regardless of the feelings he had for either of them his health was beginning to suffer. Every morning he would quickly make his way down the mine with a meal he had prepared the previous night in hand. Once he arrived at Keira's floor she would eat it and then he would proceed to tell her different stories about his experiences up in the valley. Once she would become tired he would leave her as she'd fall asleep, and return back to the surface to spend what time was left in the day with Nami. Afterwards he would return to the farm and tend to his animals before preparing another dish for Keira and falling asleep before repeating the cycle again. It was only a matter of time, however, until he began to grow tired of this routine.

* * *

"So, what can you do for me Harvey?" Jack asked as he sat in the doctor's house as he examined him.

"What exactly do you mean?" Harvey asked.

"Well you know, is there anything you can do to help me?" Jack asked.

Harvey let out a small chuckle. "I can give you a few bandages for the cuts on your arms but that's about it Jack. You need rest that's all, and a lot at that from what I can see. Might I recommend staying out of the mine for a few days?"

"What?" Jack exclaimed to both his and Hardy's surprise.

"What is there something wrong?" Hardy asked.

"No, nothing's wrong. Thanks Hardy, I'll see you later." Jack said as he stood up.

"Don't work yourself to hard out there Jack. I may be a doctor but I hate to see it when someone injures themselves." Harvey said as Jack left his house.

Despite Hardy's advice, later that day when he returned home Jack went to work in the kitchen preparing another meal for Keira and when the sun began to peak over the valley's hills he set out for the mines. The opposition from the dark creatures below was just as fierce as the previous days but today Jack's weariness got the best of him causing him to let his guard down for a brief moment on one of the lower levels giving the last dark chicken the opening it need to strike. He let out a cry of pain as the chicken lunged at him and buried its razor sharp beak into his arm, until he shook it off.

"You think you're funny or something?" He asked the chicken as it began to jump around in front of him, seeming to be taunting him. "Well how do you like this you bastard?"

He then swung his hoe at the chicken, hitting it in the side and knocking it into the wall causing it to burst into dust. After taking a few deep breaths he fell down to his knees and held his arm where the chicken had left its mark, trying to stop the blood flow. He removed the bandana from around his neck and tied it around his wounded and staggered up to his feet, weak, but still willing to continue towards Keira.

She was once again asleep when he arrived at her bedside but she was easily woken up by his grunts of pain.

"Hey Keira, you sleep well?" He asked as she sat up.

"Yes, what delightful meal did you bring me today?" She wrote.

"I brought you some curry, just normal curry though." He told her as he reached for rucksack while wincing in pain.

"Are you alright?" She wrote before taking the plate from him.

"Me? Yeah I'm fine." He replied.

"But your arm, why do you have your bandana wrapped around it. It looks like it's been stained." She wrote.

"It's nothing, just eat alright." He said a little aggressively.

Keira did as she was told and began to eat but after about a minute she gently placed the fork down on the plate and hung her head down.

"What's wrong?" Jack asked.

Keira then grabbed her note book and began to quickly write in it. "I'm sorry Jack."

"Sorry? Sorry for what?"He asked.

"All this trouble I'm causing you." She wrote.

"Trouble?" He asked.

"All the trouble you go through to come down here, fighting all the creatures and all.

"That's nothing Keira, you're not putting me in any trouble." He told her, partially telling the truth.

"I'm not stupid Jack, I can see the weariness in your eyes growing everyday from coming down here. I heard you today when you were shouting in pain." She wrote. "Jack I'm sorry. Maybe its just best if you stop coming down to see me."

"Stop coming down to see you?" He asked raising his voice. "Do you have any idea what will happen to you if I stopped coming down here? Do you?"

"…"

"Keira…" He said, bringing his voice down to almost to a whisper. "You'll die… Do you really want to give your life up for something so stupid?"

She stared back at him with watery eyes seeming to tell him that she was both unsure of what she really wanted and at the same time frightened.

"Keira, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you upset." Jack said trying to calm her down. "I just don't want to see you in any harm."

He then moved the rock closer to her bedside and sat down on it as she leaned her on his shoulder, trying not to cry.

"You've already been through enough trouble in your life already; the last thing you need is more suffering. Keira…" He began. "Will you please come up to the surface with me?"

* * *

**A/N: Managed to get this chapter out before the weekends end to my surprise. Dunno when the next update will be so please R&R till then.**


	8. Surface

Keira stared at Jack, speechless at what he just asked her.

"Will you come with me Keira?" Jack asked again.

She reached for her notebook and proceeded to write in it. "Do you really think I can live up there?"

"Of course I do, why wouldn't I?" He asked. "I never wanted you to stay down here where it's not safe."

"Well, it's just I don't know anyone up there. Where would I stay?" She wrote.

"With me of course, I have enough room in my house for the both of us. And don't worry about not knowing anyone, I know they'll warm up to you in time." He replied.

"Are you sure?" She wrote.

"Don't worry; I'll be with you every step of the way. You'll fit in just fine, trust me." He told her.

He stepped out of his seat and held his hand out for her, giving her a warm smile as he did so. She stared at him once again in disbelief but eventually decided to trust him and smiled back while she gently grabbed on to his hand.

He placed his other arm around her back and carefully helped her out of bed and up to her feet as she grabbed her notebook. He kept his arm around her as she brushed away strands of her long black hair that blocked her view, making sure that neither of them were stepping on any of them. It was the first time that he had seen her out of bed awake and he was already able to tell that her time in the mines had made her weak. He then began to slowly help her walk as they made their way across the two rooms and over to the staircase.

"Come on, it's not hard as it looks." Jack told her as she stared up the long staircase.

He felt her tighten her grip on his hand as he began to lead her up the stairs, taking each steep as carefully as possible.

"One down, two hundred forty to go." He said to her once they reached the top.

When they reached the main room of the dig site Keira froze up when she saw the bright light that was coming out of the entrance way. It appeared almost as if she was afraid of it.

"It's ok Keira." Jack said to her quietly. "I'll be with you every step remember?"

With a little hesitation she once again felt a great deal of trust for him and walked into the light with him.

* * *

Keira immediately began to feel refreshed as the clean air from the valley entered her system. She let go of Jack's hand and took a few steps forward by herself looking up in the sky in awe as a small flock of birds flew overheard singing their songs. She continued to gaze up in the sky as the sun's warmth and light fell down upon her pale skin, giving her body a new feeling of life. Jack continued to watch Keira as she slowly walked up to the waterfall and knelt beside it, placing her hand in water and letting it flow past it.

"J… J… Jack!" He heard Carter call out to him as he emerged from the tent nearby, having been watching the whole time. "Who the heck is that?"

"That's Keira." He replied happily in contrast to Carter's nervous like tone.

"Did you find her in the mine?" Carter asked.

"Yes, she's been down there for quite some time now." Jack replied. "I found here a little over a week ago."

"What?" Carter exclaimed in shock. "H… how could she have survived down there alone?"

"It's kind of complicated," Jack began. "Apparently she was placed under some cursed that let her live down there as long as she has but when I found her it was broken. That's sort of why I've been going down there every day."

Carter simply stared at Jack with his mouth open, baffled by his story.

"Come on I'll introduce you to her." Jack said as he motioned for him to follow him.

When he got closer to her he noticed that she appeared to be shaking a bit.

"Keira, are you alright?" He asked.

She turned to face him with tears falling from her eyes. "It's so beautiful," she seemed to be telling him.

"Glad your enjoy it." Jack said to her with a smile as he helped her up to her feet. "Keira, I'd like you to meet my friend Carter, he's an archeologist."

She gave him a slight bow before wiping a few tears away, despite the fact that she still had her notebook in hand.

"Hello there." Carter said a bit awkwardly.

She then began to write in her notebook. "You live in such a wonderful area."

"Yes… well um…" Carter began before being interrupted by Jack.

"She can't speak." Jack explained. "She lost her voice so she uses that notebook to communicate."

"That makes sense I guess." Carter replied, still a little uneasy with everything. "I have so work to do, so if you don't mind I'd like to head down into the dig site now."

"That's alright; I'd like to introduce Keira to a few more people around town anyway. We'll see you later." Jack said as he began to lead Keira down the path along the river.

* * *

Celia was busy watering the crops of Vesta's farm when she noticed Jack and Keira walking by.

"Hey Jack, who's your friend there?" She asked.

"This is Keira." He replied as she gave her the same bowing gesture she had done for Carter.

"Nice to meet you Keira." Celia said to her with a smile. "Have you known Jack for a while or something?"

"No, he lifted a curse that was placed on me." She wrote.

"Um… alright…" Celia replied a little uneasy just like Carter.

"It's a long story Celia, the wi… I mean a witch apparently placed a curse on her long ago that forced her to live down in the mine forever. Luckily I found her on accident a while ago and have been taking care of her since. Today I asked her to come up to the surface with me and she agreed. She seems to be enjoying it up her so far." Jack explained.

"Oh that sounds so romantic Jack, like something out of a story." Celia told him. "Wait here; I'll go get Vesta and Marlin so they can meet Keira too."

Jack felt Keira once again tighten her grip on his hand as they waited for Celia to return, though this time it seemed to be more out of happiness and not fear. So far things seemed to be going well for the pair and the surface seemed to be just right for her. Though as they stood there in wait neither one of them paid any attention to the figure standing in the shadows at a distance staring angrily at them, but more specifically, Keira.

* * *

**A/N: Even though the scene has shifted up to the surface I just feel I should let all of you know that this story still has ways to go. R&R.**


	9. Some Cold Feelings

The day began to draw to a close as Jack escorted Keira to his home on the farm. After their visit at Vesta's farm he continued to introduce her to the rest of the town who all seemed to react the same way towards her. Initially they were all a bit confused but with a little explaining from Jack they welcomed her with kindness. It seemed that just everybody would in time appreciate her just like him, well that is except for two villagers in particular. First there was the Witch Princess whom Jack skipped on the tour for obvious reasons. He just wasn't sure how to go about reintroducing the two yet, that is if he ever wanted to. Though what confused him was how Nami was nowhere to be found the whole time they were in town and was unable to meet Keira. Regardless, after their long day Jack was pretty anxious to return home and sleep now that he no longer had to tire himself out every morning

"This is where you live?" She wrote as they walked up to his house.

"I know it looks kind of small but it works. Come on, I'll show you inside." He replied as he opened the door and help her in.

Keira stood in front of the doorway and looked around the house, taking note of all the features that were new to her. She seemed to be puzzled by the television set that sat in front of couch and most of things in the kitchen area, such as the fridge and stove.

"So what do you think?" Jack asked after shutting the door, startling her a bit.

"I think your house is lovely." She wrote.

"Thanks, I figured I'd let you use the bed and I'll take the couch." He told her as he led to the center of the room.

"Thank you, I can't tell you how much it means to me that you did this for me Jack." She wrote.

"Well I couldn't just leave you alone all the time now could I? I knew that you'd enjoy it up here." He replied.

"I just wish I could see more but I'm feeling a bit tired now." She wrote.

"I was thinking about turning in about now too. Don't worry though, there's always tomorrow, and every day after that." He told her.

"Thank you." She wrote again before slowly getting into his bed and placing her notebook and the nightstand beside it. Jack stared at her for a moment as she shut her eyes and drifted into sleep with that same warm feeling in his heart from before, and then proceeded to lie down on the couch and fall asleep.

* * *

Sometime late in the night Jack was woken up by the sound of light tapping on the door. He sat up and looked over at Keira, who was still asleep, and quietly went over to the door. He opened it to see what appeared to be the Witch Princess, her figure barely visible under the dim light of the moon.

"Hello Jack." She greeted coldly.

"Witch Princess, what are you doing here?" He asked.

"I needed to talk to you… alone." She said calmly, adding the last part to his surprise.

Looking back at Keira, Jack stepped outside and slowly shut the door behind him.

"What do you want? Don't you have any idea what time it is?" He asked.

"Why Jack?" She asked.

"Why what?" He asked back.

"Don't try to play games with me Jack, I saw what you were doing out in town today. Why did you bring her back?" She asked being a little more clearer.

"Who, Keira? I thought you said you didn't care about what I did about her." He replied.

"I know I said that but it was before I knew that you were going to bring her back to the surface." She said.

"So, what's the problem with her living up here now?" He asked.

"I don't want her here Jack, not after what she's done." She told him.

"What? What did she do to you?" He asked. "What's this Goddess awful thing she did to you that makes you want her life to be a living hell?"

The Witch Princess's expression began to turn into an unpleasant one; it seemed as if she was remembering painful memories from the past.

"Sorry…" Jack said apologetically. "If you don't want to tell me it's alright, I shouldn't have asked. But that's not going to change the fact that Keira's going to be staying up here from now on."

"So be it Jack." The Witch Princess said to him quietly before walking away into the darkness.

* * *

Jack went back to sleep after reentering the house but it was only a few hours later when he was woken up by his alarm clock. He sat up on the couch and looked over at the nightstand it resided on and noticed that Keira was also awake and sitting up, except she was holding the sheets of the bed up over most of her body as she stared at the clock, appearing to be frightened of the loud noise it produced.

"Don't worry Keira; it's just an alarm clock." Jack told her as he got up and shut it off. "It makes that noise at what ever time you set it to in order to wake you up."

"So it's not a bad thing?" She wrote after she picked up her notebook.

"Yup, it can't hurt you at all." He said.

"That's good, I was a little afraid for a moment." She wrote.

"You'll get used to it." He told.

"Six in the morning? Why do you have to get up so early?" She wrote.

"Well I use to get up this early to go and visit you but now that you're here I have more time for my animals. Come on, I'll show you." He told her as he began to help her out of bed.

He continued to help her as they left the house and walked over to the large farmhouse that sat behind it in the field. Inside they were greeted by a pair of cows standing in front of their feeding trough, eager for their meal, and a sheep that was still asleep in the corner.

"This is Betsy." He told her as he walked her up to one of the cows. "She was the first farmer animal I ever had."

"She seems very healthy." Keira wrote.

"She should, I make sure that all of my animals are healthy and well cared for." He told her as he began to pet Betsy causing her to moo out of happiness.

After a brief moment the sheep emerged from its resting spot and began to nudge Jack in direction of the feed dispenser causing Keira to seemingly laugh without making a sound, being mute and all, as Jack began to place the feed in the containers.

"They can be such a pain sometimes." He told her jokingly. "Let's get something to eat back in the house; I'm sure you could use a nice meal after so long."

They exited the barn and began to make their way towards the house but they were only halfway there when Jack heard Nami calling out to him.

"Hey Jack." Nami said as they began to face her. "Who's your friend here?"

"This is Keira; she's a new friend of mine." He told her.

"It's nice to meet you." Keira wrote.

"Hm, is this the same girl you were with yesterday?" She asked, surprising them both.

"Yes, I looked around for you yesterday so I could introduce you but I couldn't find you anywhere." Jack said.

"I was up in town yesterday when I came back I saw you two walking home yesterday and didn't feel like bothering you." Nami replied a little fast, almost as if she had rehearsed the line earlier.

"That's too bad, I'm sorry you had to come here so early to meet here." Jack said.

"It's no problem; I usually get up this early anyway." Nami told him.

"Keira and I were just about to have some breakfast, would you care to join us?" Jack asked.

"No thanks." Nami answered. "I'll see you later Jack."

"Alright, I guess I'll see you later then." Jack said.

"Goodbye, it was nice meeting you." Keira wrote.

"Yeah, nice." Nami said as she left.

* * *

**A/N: I got a nice four day weekend now so hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter up pretty soon. R&R.**


	10. Sick

After returning back to the house and having breakfast, Jack spent the rest of the day showing Keira around the rest of his farm and introducing her to some of the new things that were up on the surface. Then when night began to fall they returned to the house and shared another meal before heading to bed. The following morning Jack was busy cooking two omelets as Keira sat at the table, waiting for him to finish, when there was a knock at the door. Jack stepped away from the over and opened the door to be greeted by Thomas.

"Hello Jack." Thomas said.

"Thomas, how can I help you?" Jack asked.

"Not really, I just came by to remind you that today is the cooking festival in case you've forgotten." Thomas said.

"Oh man, I was so busy helping Keira that I forgot." Jack told him.

"Keira?" Thomas asked.

Jack turned around and motioned for Keira to come over to him which she did. "This is my friend Keira. Keira this is Thomas, he's the mayor Mineral Town."

"Hello, nice to meet you." She wrote.

"It's a long story." Jack told Thomas as he put a puzzled look on.

"Yes… well I hope to see you both at the beach today then. Good bye." Thomas said as he left.

"We'll be there." Jack said to him before shutting the door.

"What's the cooking festival?" Keira wrote.

"It's a day where anyone in town who chooses to enter tries to make the best dish they can according to the year's theme." He explained.

"That sounds fun, are you going to enter?" She wrote.

"I would if I had remembered it was today." He said. "You were occupying so much of my time I forgot. It's alright though, I probably wouldn't have won anyway, I'm not that great of a cook anyhow."

"I think you're a good cook, I've enjoyed all the food you made for me so far." She wrote.

"Thanks, I should probably get back to finishing our breakfast. I wouldn't want to start making a bad impression on you now." He said as he went back to the stove.

* * *

Later that day in the mid afternoon Jack decided to take Keira on a walk around town while everyone else was busy preparing their dish for the festival. He wanted her to spend as much time outside as she could in order to help her gain more strength in her legs and to allow her to get more fresh air and sun.

"So how are you enjoying it up here on the surface?" Jack asked as they walked towards the farm.

"I love it up here. The air is so fresh and I love the way the sun warms me up." Keira wrote.

"I figured you'd enjoy it up here more than that dark depressing cavern of yours." He told her.

When they approached the farm house Jack noticed that there was a small jar sitting on his doorstep.

"What could this be?" Jack asked as he picked it up and looked at it.

"What is it?" Keira wrote.

"It looks like it's some sort of juice or something." He replied as looked at the orange liquid inside.

"Who left it here?" She wrote.

"I don't know." He said as he continued to look at the jar's contents. "Kind of weird since this year's theme for the cooking festival is mixer recipes."

"You mean you could enter whatever's inside that?" She wrote.

"If it's safe I suppose I could." He told her. "Do you think I should test it?"

"If you don't think you'll get hurt I guess you can." She wrote.

They walked into the house and Keira took at seat at the table as Jack placed the jar down on it. He then went over to the cabinet and removed a glass and opened the jar before pouring a bit of the juice inside into the glass. He took a sip out of it and stood still for a moment, waiting to see if any negative effects would happen.

"Well it seems alright." He finally said after nothing happened. "I don't feel any different."

"What's it taste like?" She wrote.

"I can't really tell, it tastes like it's made up of a bunch of different fruits." He told her. "Want to try some?"

"Sure." She wrote.

He took out another glass and poured out a little more of the juice into it. Keira took the glass from it and drank from it.

"It tastes a little sweet." She wrote.

"Yeah but I don't think it's too bad. So do you think I should try entering it?" He asked. "Seeing as nothing bad happened."

"Go ahead." She wrote.

"Alright, I guess I'll give it shot." He said as he closed up the jar and set it aside.

* * *

A few hours later when it was time for the festival Jack and Keira left the farm house with the jar in hand. It felt just that same as when they were outside early that day but what concerned Jack was how ever few minutes Keira would hold her stomach with a pained look on her face for a brief moment before stopping.

"Are you feeling alright Keira?" Jack asked as they approached the beach.

"Yes, I'm fine." She wrote.

"If you say so." He replied.

Just about everyone in town was at the beach eyeing one another's dishes when they arrived.

"Hello again Jack." Thomas greeted. "Do you have a dish you'd like to enter this year?"

"Right here." Jack told him as he handed him the jar.

"So what is it?" Thomas asked.

"It's a surprise." Jack said, still unsure of what it really was.

"Hm, well I'm sure Gourmet will enjoy it." Thomas said. "The judging will be starting soon so don't stray to far from the beach area now."

As Thomas went and placed the jar down on the judging table Jack walked with Keira over by Celia and Karen to wait for the judging to begin. After a minute or two Gourmet came out as Thomas announced the start of the judging. Keira began to feel a terrible pain in her stomach as she watched him go about and test each dish and give his opinion on it.

"Now that the testing portion of the festival has been finished please wait another moment while the winner is decided!" Thomas announced.

Turning to face Keira, Jack became worried when he noticed as she slowly took a seat on one of the nearby benches, while holding her stomach again and beginning to sweat.

"Keira are you ok?" He asked as he took a seat beside her.

"It's my stomach Jack, it hurts." She wrote.

"You don't look well at all." He told her.

"Well it seems that winner has been decided!" Thomas announced over Jack.

"Yes, the best dish here was Jack's magnificent fruit juice. Congratulations to him and all that participated." Gourmet said.

"Gourmet, can you tell me what was in that juice?" Jack asked walking up to him, leaving Celia and Karen to watch Keira.

"You made it Jack; wouldn't you know what's in it?" Gourmet asked.

"Well no… the jar was just sitting in front of my house this afternoon and I tried it to see if there was anything wrong with it. When nothing happened I decided to enter it but I think it's making Keira sick." Jack explained.

"Ah, well it seems to be made up of various fruits but the one that sticks out the most to me is the peaches in it." Gourmet told him causing Keira to look up with an unsettling look on her face.

"Keira what's wrong?" Jack asked as he went back to her.

"Peaches, I'm allergic to them." She wrote.

She began to feel her head spin around as she watched Jack go and try and find Hardy in the crowd. Her vision began to become blurred as she looked around, but it didn't stop her from becoming horrified when she noticed a familiar looking caped figure standing at the edge of the beach with a smile on its face before passing out.

* * *

**A/N: I don't know why I went with peaches make her sick, I really don't. It was probably because her and the Witch Princess both hate them. Oh well.**


	11. Someone Else

"Is she going be alright?" Jack asked Doctor Hardy as him and Celia watched as he tended to Keira.

"She seems to have suffered from an allergic reaction to the peaches that where in that juice." Hardy told them as he turned around in his seat by the bedside. "She'll be perfectly fine, but I'd say you let her rest up here a bit before bringing her home."

"This is all my fault." Jack said disappointed with himself.

"No it isn't." Celia said trying to comfort him. "You didn't know what was in that juice, or how she was allergic to peaches. Besides Hardy said she'd be alright."

"Well, I have to go make my daily trip of to Romana's now." Hardy told them as he got up and opened the door. "I'll leave you three be for now. If she wakes up just make sure she's in good condition before you leave."

"I will." Jack told him.

After Hardly left, Jack and Celia sat down at the table in the center of the room in silence and began to wait for Keira to wake up. After about an hour or so Jack watched as her eyes began to gently open up.

"Hey Keira." He said quietly as walked up to her side as he began to take her notebook out of his rucksack.

To his surprise she quickly sat up and began to look around the room with a panicked look on.

"What's wrong?" He asked as she quickly snatched the notebook from his hands.

"Jack, I saw her!" She quickly wrote.

"Saw who?" He asked as she continued to write at a fast pace.

"She's still alive! She's going to curse me again!" She wrote.

"Keira what are you talking about?" He asked.

"At the beach, I saw the witch who cursed me! Before I passed out I saw her smiling at me!" She wrote.

"Jack, do you think she's talking about the wi…" Celia began before she saw Jack motioning for her to stop.

"Keira, you're going to be alright." Jack told her in an effort to calm her down. "I'm sure what ever you saw was just in your imagination or something."

"But she looked so real." She wrote.

"It was probably your mind playing tricks on you while you were sick." He said.

"Do you really think so?" She wrote.

"Almost positive." He said before turning to face Celia. "Celia, would you mind watching Keira for a minute? I have to go ask someone about something."

"Sure, I guess I can stay here a bit longer." She answered, understanding what he meant.

"Thanks, I'll be right back." He said to them both as he left.

Outside, Jack's mood quickly shifted from relieved to anger as he began to walk in the direction of Romana's mansion, more specifically the shack next to it. When he reached it he began to bang his fist furiously against it.

"Witch Princess!" He shouted. "Open up!"

He continued to knock on the door until it suddenly opened, as if by magic. He walked inside and scanned the messy room, looking for her, but despite not seeing her he still felt her presence in the room.

"I know it was you who made that juice in order to get Keira sick." He said.

After a brief moment of silence he what sounded like her laughing.

"… You better try anything like that again! It's not going to work!" He shouted.

"_Do you real think you can threaten me?" _The Witch Princess's voice said from out of nowhere.

"Where are you?" He asked. "Why are you hiding from me?"

"_Oh Jack, you already figured me out, isn't that enough?" _She asked.

"I don't get what you're trying to do." He said. "First you try to help me help her and now you're trying to hurt her."

_"I thought I already explained this to you." _She said sounding agitated. _"I thought that were simply going to leave her down in the mine and hopefully forget about her. Bringing her up here was a mistake."_

"You think I'd just leave her down there to die?" He said furious. "You really do hate her don't you?"

"_You know I'm not the only one who wants her gone." _She told him.

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

"_Jack, Jack, Jack, you'll find out soon enough…" _She said, her voice seeming to get more distant with each word.

"Ju… just leave her alone." He said before leaving the shack, slamming the door as he did.

* * *

As he began to make his way back to Hardy's he attracted the attention of Nami, who was standing around the front of the inn almost as if she was waiting for him to come by.

"Hey Jack." She said.

"Nami." He said back, trying to indicate he was in a bit of a hurry.

"So that friend of yours, is she going to be alright?" She asked.

"Yah, Hardy said she just needed rest that's all." He told her.

"That's good I suppose." She replied.

"I had Celia watch her at his house for awhile while I took care of something. They're still there if you'd like to come with me and say hi." He said.

"That's fine; I have some business to take care of myself." She told him.

"Oh, well alright then." He said.

"So Jack, when are we going to ever spend some time together again?" She asked.

"Well it's just that I've been pretty busy helping Keira out the past few days that she's been occupying a lot of my time." He replied.

"Hmph, is she confused?" She asked in a rude manner.

"Hey, it's not her fault; the Witch Princess cursed her to live down in the mine for so long she doesn't how most things work up her now." He said in Keira's defense.

"Did she now?" She asked curiously.

"Yah, she's also the one who made that juice that made her sick today." He said.

"So she really hates her huh?" She asked.

"None of her tricks are going to work though." He told her. "I'm going to make sure of it."

"Keira's pretty lucky to have a friend as kind as you then." She said.

"Thanks Nami." He said. "If you don't mind I'm going to go check up on her."

"Not a problem. I guess I'll see you later." Nami said as she began to walk in the direction Jack had just come from as he reentered Hardy's.

* * *

When he entered the room he quiet shut the door and took a seat by Celia as she watch Keira while she who was asleep again.

"How is she?" He asked.

"She fell asleep almost as soon as you left. Other than that she seems pretty fine." She answered. "She looks so peaceful for someone who seemed pretty sick."

"She looks just like she did down in the mines." He said.

"So, what did the Witch Princess have to say?" She asked.

"She admitted to making the fruit juice specifically to hurt Keira. She also told me that she's not the only one in the valley who hate's her." He told her sounding a little concerned.

"What? Who could that be?" She asked.

"I don't know all I know though is that I'm going to make sure no one hurts her." He told her.

"She must be grateful that it was you who found her huh?" She asked.

"Yeah, it's getting a little late, we should probably get home." He said.

"You think she's well enough to leave?" She asked.

"She seems like it, if she's not I'll be sure to do what I can for her when we get back home." He told her.

He walked up to the bed and carefully removed the seats that covered Keira, trying his best not to wake her. He then gently lifted her up in his arms, as she began to shift around in them, trying to get more comfortable while still asleep. He then carried her back to the farm, thanking Celia for watching her when she headed back to her own home. When he entered the farm house he carefully placed Keira in the bed in the house, whispering good night, before going to sleep himself on the couch.

* * *

**A/N: I have no idea when I'm going to get the next chapter up. Hopefully it won't be too long.**


	12. Summer's Curse

Over the course of the rest of the spring the Witch Princess seemed to have surprisingly listened to Jack's demand and didn't try any more tricks on Keira. After she returned back to full health Jack soon found himself falling back into his old routine of having to divide his time between both Keira and Nami, though this time he didn't have to tire himself out as much. A few days after summer had begun to set in however, things began to get strange again.

Jack was busy out in his field, planting some seeds around, when the cutesy voice of a certain girl attracted his attention.

"Hey Jack, you got a moment?" He heard Popuri's voice ask him.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Tomorrow's the chicken festival so I came to see if you have one you'd like to enter." She told him as happy as ever at the mention of chickens.

"Yeah, I got a chicken I'll enter." He told her. "Let me go fetch him."

He motioned for her to follow him as walked over to the chicken coop and entered it. It was unusually cold inside, but he thought nothing of it as he began to look around for the particular chicken.

"Ah, here he is." Jack said as he picked it out of the group.

As he began to reach for the chicken he felt a cold breeze blow past him, with a faint laugh trailing behind it. Though what disturbed him even more was that as he placed his hand on the chicken it suddenly collapsed in front of him, dead, as Popuri let out a small cry.

"Did… did it just die?" She asked, frightened.

"I think so." He said a little calm. "I just touched it and it died."

Since chickens we're her favorite animal Popuri wasn't able to stand the site of the dead animal for long, and soon left without saying a word. Jack understood though, even he found the scene unsettling. He delicately picked up the dead chicken and brought it outside to dispose of it. After he buried it he entered the farm house and gave a sad look to Keira, who was busy tidying up the place. With all the time she had spent up on the surface she was beginning to regain the strength in her legs and her skin was returning to its, ironic, peach like tone.

"Hey Keira." He said.

She walked over to the table and picked up her notebook and began to write in it. "Hello Jack, is something wrong?"

"Not really, it's just that the strangest thing just happened." He began as he took a seat at the table. "When I went to the chicken coop to get submit an entry for the chicken festival tomorrow when I went to grab one it suddenly died as soon as I touched it."

"Really?" She wrote.

"Yeah, and I heard what sounded like some laughing right before it happened." He told her.

"That's strange." She wrote.

"It's not the bad though, it was only a chicken. So what are you going to do today?" He asked.

"I was planning on fixing up the house a bit, maybe go take a walk." She wrote.

"Alright, I think I'm going to go and see what Nami's up to so I guess I'll see you later today." He told.

"I hope you two have fun. You always seem like a nice couple." She wrote before she watched him leave.

It was always comments like those that made Jack conflicted inside. He would always recall the first time they met down in the mines and how she had referred to him as a peasant, almost as if she was disappointed with him. Though with everything he had done for her to help her reenter the world he couldn't help but wonder what she thought of him now. There were times where he would think if maybe she felt attached to him for being more than her savoir now and was maybe a little disappointed with his current relationship. But of course, at the time being it wouldn't matter.

When he arrived at the Inn Jack headed up the stairs to the second floor and walked up to Nami's room and knocked on the door.

"Jack, what a surprise." She said as she opened the door. "Is Keira not busy or something today?"

"She said that she was just going to spend time around the house and maybe go outside later so I thought that I figured I come and see what you were up to today." He told her.

"That's nice, come on in." She said, stepping aside to let him through.

"So what's new with you?" He asked.

"Oh not much, I've just been hanging around here. It's a little too hot outside for me this time of year." She replied. "You?"

"Nothing really, except today I somehow manage to kill one of my chickens by touching it." He said.

"Really?" She said, almost as if she was expecting to hear him say that.

"Yeah, all I did was touch it and it died. I heard this strange laugh before it happened too. It was really weird." He explained.

"Oh, I'm sure it was nothing." She told him.

"Yeah, nothing." He said.

* * *

Back at the farm house Keira had finished cleaning it and began to walk over towards Vesta's farm to visit Celia. Since her move to the surface Keira had become close friends with her and found walking over to her house every now and then for a visit was a great way to regain her strength when Jack wasn't around to help her. When she approached the farm's fields, Celia who was busy working noticed her walking by and walked over to her.

"Hey Keira." Celia greeted.

"Hello Celia." Keira wrote.

"What brings you over here today?" Celia asked.

"Jack decided to go and visit Nami today so I thought that I would come and visit you." Keira wrote.

"Your life seems to be centered around him." Celia told her.

"What do you mean?" Keira wrote.

"It's just that you always seem to base what you do each day off of what he does." Celia said.

"Well he did save me from the mines and I do live with him." Keira wrote.

"It's so lovely, that story about how he saved you. How he would risk his health to go down there every day in order to make sure you survived. You could write a novel about it." Celia told her.

"It is pretty nice the way he tries to make me happy." Keira wrote.

"It's a shame he's already taken though." Celia said.

"I don't think of him that way, Celia." Keira wrote.

"How could you not? You're pretty lucky to have him as such a close friend." Celia told her.

"Can we talk about something else?" Keira wrote.

"Fine." Celia said.

* * *

As summer continued to drag on Jack began to notice how all of the crops he had planted either failed to grow or once they did, died with a day or two of sprouting. Even any new crops he'd try to plant would suffer the same fate. Like the chickens death he didn't pay any real attention to it as he was currently troubled by the recent illness that befell Betsy. A few days after the chicken's death she became dangerously ill and no medicine seemed to help her at all. It pained him to see his most prized farm animal in such tragic condition but it seemed as if nothing could help her that was until he got a proposal from a certain magic being.

"Come one Betsy, what's wrong." Jack asked the cow as it sat down on the ground and let out a weak moo. "What's making you so sick?"

"Having animal troubles are we?" Someone asked him from behind.

"Witch Princess?" He asked as he turned around and saw her standing over in the corner.

"Could it be that you're most treasured possession is in trouble and you can't help it?" She asked in a manipulative tone.

"You, you did this didn't you?" He asked her in anger.

The Witch Princess formed a sadistic looking grin.

"Wait, the dead chicken and crops that was all you wasn't it?" He asked angrier than before.

"Hm, you catch on fast don't you?" She asked.

"Why are doing this?" He asked as he ran up to her only for her to disappear and reappear behind him.

"Come on Jack, you told me yourself not to mess around with Keira anymore so I decided to do the next best thing." She explained.

"Hurt me? How is that going to help you get rid of Keira?" He asked.

"Simple, I can make all the suffering on your farm end if you send her back down to the mines." She told him.

"Do you really think killing my farm is going to make me want to hurt her?" He asked. "You're crazy."

"So be it Jack." She said before waving her hand down.

As soon as she finished the motion Betsy let out a loud painful moo before collapsing on the ground dead. Jack turned to face her for a moment before turning back at the Witch Princess in anger only to find her gone.

"_Guess it's time for plan B…"_

_

* * *

_

**A/N: Did I break the fourth wall in there or something? **


	13. Sunflowers and Illusions

Keira found herself walking through the courtyard of her old castle. She knew it was just a dream but everything around her seemed so real that it almost was as if she had never been sent down to the mines of in the first place. She crouched down in front of one of the flower beds and reached out to touch one of the sunflowers it contained. As she as she made contact with it a wicked laugh rang through her ears and the air became cold. Suddenly the flower began to wilt and deteriorate and as soon as the first pedal fell and hit the ground everything else in the area began to suffer the same fate. The grass began to turn to a hideous brown color and all the other flowers soon wilted as well. The courtyards walls began to crumble and fall apart and the clear sky above soon filled with dark gray clouds.

"_Tragic isn't it…?" _A voiced said to her.

Keira stood up and looked behind her to see the wind begin to circle around and eventually form the figure of the witch that cursed her long ago.

"Long time no see Keira." The Witch Princess said with a grin.

Keira stumbled and fell back in fear at the sight of her old tormentor.

"I've been watching you for a while..." The With Princess began as she slowly walked up to Keira.

Keira began to slowly back away from the Witch Princess on the ground. "…"

"What's the matter? Can't you speak?" The Witch asked. "Oh yeah that's right. I stole your voice."

Keira let out a whimper only to suddenly realize that she had somehow been give back her voice.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to let you have it back for a while." The Witch Princess said.

"What are you doing here?" Keira asked as she placed her hand on her throat for a moment.

"What, can't a witch come and say hi to an old friend?" The Witch Princess asked in a harsh tone.

"How! How are you still alive?" Keira demanded.

"Come on now Keira, I'm a witch. You have to give a little credit to the person who made you immortal as well." The Witch Princess said to her before grinning again. "At least for a while."

"What are you talking about?" Keira asked.

"As soon as that barrier that separated you from the outside world fell you became human again. It's as if I never cursed you." The Witch Princess explained.

Keira simply started at her in shock.

"Jack, he's such a nice friend of yours." The Witch Princess said.

"Ja… Jack?" Keira said almost as if she was unfamiliar with the name.

"He's so protective of you." The Witch Princess said as if she was going off topic. "The way he's willing to let his own animals and crops die to protect you."

"What?" Keira asked.

"Oh, you didn't know?" The Witch Princess asked. "All the death on his farm is your fault."

"What, what did I do? I haven't done anything." Keira told her.

"That's where you're wrong Keira my dear." The Witch Princess said. "If you hadn't accepted his invitation to the surface his farm would still be prospering like it was before."

"But what do you mean that he's protecting me?" Keira asked.

"I told him that if he'd send you back down to the mine I'd end my curse." The Witch Princess said before picking up one of the dying flowers and plucking its petals. "Foolish human, refusing my offer. He will in due time though."

"He… he'd never hurt me!" Keira shouted at her in anger.

"Oh calm down Keira, I know he won't. He made that quite clear after I tried to poison you." The Witch Princess told her.

"What?" Keira asked.

"How could you forget? Remember last season at the cooking festival you got sick off of that juice? Maybe you should've given you're compliments to the chef." The Witch Princess explained as Keira's eyes widen with fear.

"That… that was you, at the beach. It was you!" Keira exclaimed.

"I guess you're smarter than you look." The Witch Princess said as she threw the stem of the dead plant away.

"Why? Why are you doing this?" Keira cried.

"Because, I want you to suffer, just like I did." The Witch Princess switching her calm tone for a more menacing one.

"But why me?" Keira asked.

"Because you're the one who made me suffer!" The Witch Princess shouted.

"What did I do?" Keira asked in fear.

"You don't think I don't remember?" The Witch Princess asked as if she was just insulted. "You think I don't remember all that pain! All that heartache! All that anger!" She said getting closer to Keira with each word. "And it was all because of you!"

Keira continued to stare at her with fear, almost at the brink of tears.

"No matter." The Witch Princess said, returning to her calm self. "I was friends with Jack, I know how he works. It'll only be a matter of time before I find out how to break him."

"Friends…? You couldn't be friends with Jack… He would never be friends with someone like you." Keira said in disbelief.

"Oh you'd be surprised Keira." The Witch Princess said forming another grin. "He's aware of my intent to get rid of you but is too afraid to tell you about anything."

"You're… you're lying." Keira said.

"Believe what you want Keira. Just know one thing, this isn't over." The Witch Princess said as she soon began to fade away.

After everything that she had just heard Keira couldn't help but want to cry. What had she done to deserve this? Why was the Witch Princess so intent on ruining her life? And more importantly could Jack really have been friends with her this whole time?

As the first tear from Keira's eyes fell and touched the ground, so did the last pedal of the sunflower.

* * *

**A/N: What was simply suppose to be a few short lines from the next chapter eventually turned into this. It seems a little dark to me but I find it fits perfectly in the story. Till next time people.**


	14. Secret's Out

It was still late in the night when Keira quickly sat up in bed, her eyes brimming with the tears she had cried during her dream. She looked over at Jack who was still asleep on the couch with a great sense of fear in her heart.

"_Jack…" _She mouthed only to find that the Witch Princess had reposed her voice now that she was awake.

She got out of bed and began to slowly walk over to him. She not only wanted to tell him about the dream she had just had but she also had to know if what the Witch Princess said about him was true. When she stood in front of him she stared at him for a moment before returning back to bed. She would just have to trust her heart and believe that what she had heard was a lie.

During breakfast the next morning Keira was feeling too upset to eat and constantly fiddled around with the eggs that sat on her plate, much to Jack's confusion.

"Is something wrong with the way I cooked your eggs this morning?" He asked.

She picked up the notebook that rested beside her plate and began to write. "No, they're fine."

"Then is something troubling you?" He asked.

"No, nothing is wrong." She wrote.

Jack looked at her for a moment before sighing and placing his fork down on the table. "You looked like you were upset by something last night."

"Huh?" She wrote.

"I saw you get up out of bed and walk over to me last night before going back to sleep." He said. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She wrote.

"Keira." He said.

"…"

"Keira." He said a little more aggressively.

"Jack I'm sorry." She wrote.

"It's ok, I'm not mad or anything. Just tell me what's wrong." He said.

"I saw her again, that witch. She was in my dream last night." She wrote.

"She was in your dream?" He asked.

"Yes." She wrote.

"Did you just see her?" He asked.

"Not exactly, at first I was dreaming that I was in my old castle and then suddenly everything got all dark and depressing. Then she appeared behind me and gave me my voice before talking to me." She wrote.

"What did she say?" He asked.

"She told me that I somehow caused her a great deal of pain and that she wants me to suffer because of it." She wrote.

Jack just stared at Keira, waiting for her to continue.

"She also told me about you." She wrote.

"Me?" He asked.

"She told me that you knew she was trying to hurt me this whole time and didn't tell me… and that you're her friend." She wrote as if that was the hardest thing she could do at the time.

After reading those words Jack looked away from Keira out of disappointment with himself.

"How could you be friends with her this whole time? Let alone not even tell me that she was here?" She wrote.

"Keira you don't understand…" He began. "I've known her ever since I moved to this valley. I know she's a witch but she never did anything that would cause anyone harm, she even told me she hadn't even tried to cause any mischief in ages."

"What about me?" She wrote. "How can you not count what she did to me?"

"It was before I met you, before I even knew about you. Until I found you no one was even aware that you were living down there. Even she seemed to have forgotten about you." He told her.

"And is that supposed to make me feel better?" She wrote either out of anger or sadness.

"I'm sorry Keira; it's just that I didn't want to tell you because I didn't know how you'd take it." He told her. "Before I could even try to do anything she came here and told me that she didn't want you want you here."

"Do you know how much it hurt me to have to hear all of this from her? I thought she was lying." She wrote.

"Keira I'm sorry." He told her.

"I just need to be alone for a while." She wrote before standing up from her seat at the table.

"Keira…" He said quietly as she left.

* * *

After leaving the house Keira began to follow the trail that lead towards the Goddess Pond. After everything she had heard in the past few hours she need some time to clear her head. She just couldn't believe that the one person who she truly felt connected to could be friends with the one who had made her to lose everything. When she arrived at the pond she took a seat beside the water's edge and began to stare into it, lost in her thoughts. Eventually Celia walked by and took notice of her.

"Hey Keira." Celia said as she walked up and took a seat beside her.

"Hello Celia, what are you doing here?" Keira wrote.

"Oh nothing, just walking around town and ended up here that's all." Celia replied sounding a little embarrassed about something.

"Oh." Keira wrote.

"So what about you?" Celia asked. "I usually never see you come to this part of town."

"I just wanted some fresh air that's all." Keira wrote in a way that seemed to indicate her troubles to Celia.

"Is something wrong? You seem upset about something." Celia said.

"It's about Jack." Keira wrote.

"Jack? Did something happen between you two? He didn't hurt you did he?" Celia asked saying the last part angrily.

"I guess he sort of did." Keira wrote.

"What do you mean sort of?" Celia asked.

"He told me that he's been friends with the witch who cursed me the whole time he's known me after she told me herself." Keira wrote.

"You mean the Witch Princess?" Celia asked much to Keira's surprise.

"You know her too?" Keira wrote.

"Yeah, everyone in town does. But that doesn't mean I'm her friend." Celia said in a reassuring manner.

"I just don't get it Celia, how could he do this to me." Keira wrote.

"I'm sure he had a good reason for hiding this from you." Celia said.

"He said it was because he didn't know how to tell me. Like that's a good reason." Keira wrote.

"Well, how do you have felt if he told you himself instead?" Celia asked.

"I'd probably feel like I do now." Keira wrote.

"Then what's the problem." Celia asked.

"It's just that I would have rather have heard it from him. It would have been easier on me." Keira wrote.

"So when did she even tell you about all this?" Celia asked.

"She told me in my dream last night." Keira wrote.

"You mean she actually came into your dream and talked to you?" Celia asked.

"Yes, she even told me why she cursed me." Keira wrote.

"Really?" Celia asked.

"She told me that she apparently suffered a lot because of something I did and she forced me to live in the mine so I could share her pain." Keira wrote.

"So you don't even know what you did to make her so upset?" Celia asked surprised.

"No. I just don't understand what I could have done to her to make her take everything I cared about away from me." Keira wrote. "She took my voice, my family, my kingdom and my life away from me and still isn't satisfied! She's even killing the farm in order to get rid of me!"

"Keira calm down." Celia said trying to comfort her. "You're going to be alright."

Keira placed down her notebook down in the grass beside her and covered her eyes as she began to cry from all the painful thoughts that flooded into her head.

"Come on Keira, everything's going to be fine." Celia told her. "I know you're probably upset with him right now, but you have to believe me when I tell you that Jack isn't going to let the Witch Princess hurt you. He has good intentions but he's just not sure how to go about them."

Keira wiped away a few tears before picking up her notebook and writing in it. "Do you really think so?"

"I'm positive." Celia replied.

* * *

When Keira returned back to the farm later that day she saw that Jack was leaning against one of the farms fence beside Nami, looking out into the field of dead crops, and decided to stand at a distance and hear what they were saying.

"So the Witch Princess did all of this?" Nami asked.

"Yeah, she's also behind all of the animal deaths here recently." Jack told her.

"But why?" She asked.

"She thinks that killing my farm will make me want to send Keira away." He told her.

"How is that going to work?" She asked.

"She told me that if I send Keira down to the mines again she'll lift this curse on my farm." He told her.

"So what are you going to do?" She asked to Keira's surprise.

"I'm going to let her stay here of course!" He exclaimed. "Her little trick didn't work last time so it's in no way going to work now."

"Hmph, I just don't see how you're going to make a living without a producing farm." She replied.

"I'll find a way." He told her.

Nami turned around to leave and noticed Keira standing behind them.

"Keira." Nami said in a cold tone.

"Hello Nami." Keira wrote only to look and see that she had left and Jack had taken her place in front of her.

"Feeling better?" He asked in a kind manner.

"Yes." She wrote.

"Look, I'm sorry about not telling you about the Witch Princess. I just didn't think you'd enjoy the news that's all." He explained.

"It's alright Jack, I know you only hid this from me to help me." She wrote.

"That's what I'm here for." He told her. "I'm going to make sure the Witch Princess does nothing to hurt you."

"Thank you Jack." She wrote before giving him a friendly hug.

"We'll get through whatever tricks she throws at us together." He told her. "She has to give up eventually."

* * *

The Witch Princess slowly began to fade from the shadows of the large tree in the middle of the field as the two walked into the farm house, having heard the whole conversation between them.

"_Curses…" _

Later that night back at her house the Witch Princess violently flipped through the pages of one of her many books.

"No, no, no!" She shouted as he tossed aside the book and picked up another. "There has to be a spell in here I can use, no!"

She set the book aside and rested up against the desk she stood by. "I can't let her win! Not after what she's done! It's not fair!"

In anger she swiped at a large pile of books that rested on the table sending them and the papers inside everywhere around the room. She looked down at one of the books that she knocked over that now sat open at her feet, and looked back up before looking down at it again with a curious look on.

"What have we here?" She asked as she picked it up.

She slowly began to look through the next few pages that contained an ancient sort of writing depicting a spell.

"Hm…" She said before giving a low wicked laugh and forming a menacing grin. "This will do… this will do just fine…"

* * *

**A/N: Yet another evil plot forms, though unlike the previous ones, it should last more than a few chapters.**


	15. Secret Ingredient

"Let's see, now we need a touch of red grass…" The Witch Princess read from her book as she dropped a bundle of the grass into her cauldron.

She had been levitating next to her cauldron for most of the night with her spell book in hand, adding various odds and ends into the mixture as they were listed in order to create what see believed would finally get rid of Keira.

"And finally…" She said before pausing. "Oh, now this is rather inconvenient."

She shut the book in her hand and placed it on the desk beside her brew before looking out into space.

"Now how am I supposed to get that?" She asked herself.

She began to scan the room when she suddenly took interest in the small calendar on the wall, more specifically, the following date.

"Fireworks festival, huh?" She said.

She gently lowered herself back to the ground and walked up to one of her shelves containing various spare potions and mixtures. She picked up one of them and stared it with her usual evil grin.

"I've been saving you for such an occasion…"

* * *

Later that afternoon Jack and Keira were walking about the valley when she noticed preparations for something going on at the beach.

"What are they doing over there?" She wrote.

"They're just getting ready for the fireworks festival that's all." He told her.

"Fireworks festival?" She wrote.

"It's another day where the whole town gathers at the beach." He explained. "This one's more for enjoyment though since every just get's to watch fireworks light up the sky and have fun."

"I remember I used to watch fireworks before when I lived here, they didn't seem as festive as they do now though." She wrote.

"I'm sure you'll have fun, just about everyone that goes does." He said.

At that moment Nami walked up to the pair seeming happy about something.

"Hello Jack." Nami greeted.

"Hi Nami, what are you so happy about?" Jack asked.

"It's the fireworks festival today." Nami said.

"I know that." Jack said.

"I know, and I was hoping that maybe when the actual festivities begin we can go somewhere and watch the fireworks together." Nami said.

"Like alone?" Jack asked.

"Of course, why wouldn't we?" Nami asked.

"It's just that I was thinking of staying down at the beach and watching them with Keira and everyone else." Jack said as he looked over at her as she listened attentively to the two.

"Really?" Nami asked sounding upset.

"Yeah, it's just that I don't want her to feel alone." Jack explained.

"Well what about Celia? She can watch them with her can't she?" Nami asked in a rude tone.

"Well I guess she can but I'd just like to be there with her." Jack said.

"Hmph, I guess that's alright. I'll see you there then." Nami said before walking away upset.

"You know you can with her Jack, I won't mind." Keira wrote.

"Its fine Keira, it's just that I want to make sure the Witch Princess doesn't try to do anything to you." He told her.

"Do you think she's going to do something?" She wrote.

"I don't know, but if she does I want to make sure your safe." He said.

"That's so sweet of you Jack." She wrote before hugging him again.

* * *

When evening approached Jack and Keira headed over to the beach in order to celebrate the fireworks festival. When they arrived they saw that everyone from the valley and Mineral Town was in attendance, including a youthful looking girl that neither of them had seen before. She had long brown hair that matched her eyes and was wearing a long red dress.

"Did you forget to introduce me to that girl over there?" Keira wrote.

"No, I've never seen her around here before." Jack told her.

Since as she was standing around by herself, the two decided to walk over to see who she was.

"Hello." Jack said as they approached her.

"Why hello there." She said with an eerily familiar smile.

"Are you new to town or something?" Jack asked. "I don't recall ever seeing you around town before."

"Yes, I just moved in up in Mineral town. My name is Rose." She told her.

"Nice to meet you Rose. My name's Jack and this is my friend Keira." He said.

"Hello Jack, Keira." Rose said.

"Hello Rose, it's nice to meet you." Keira wrote.

"Hm, that's an odd looking dress you have on," Rose said to Keira, ignoring the fact that wrote instead of spoke unlike everyone else. "I've never seen anything like it before."

"It's from this old kingdom I used to live in." Keira wrote.

"Old kingdom?" Rose asked.

"I used to live in this kingdom long ago until I was cursed by an evil witch. Thankfully Jack was able to save me recently." Keira wrote.

"You were cursed by a witch?" Rose asked.

"Yes, and she's still alive too. She's been trying to get rid of me for a while now" Keira wrote.

"Really?" Rose asked.

"Yeah but her tricks aren't going to work, I'm making sure of it." Jack said.

"Are you sure? I mean witches always seem to pretty crafty when it comes to evil." Rose told him.

"So far nothing she's done has worked and I'm beginning to think she's running out of ideas." Jack said seeming to make Rose angry.

"Well good luck with that then." Rose said a little aggravated before walking away.

"Hm, I wonder what's wrong with her." Jack asked.

"So when do the fireworks begin?" Keira wrote.

"Hopefully soon." Jack replied. "Now I wonder whe…"

"Hey Jack." Nami said from behind surprising him.

"Nami there you are. I was wondering when you'd get here." Jack said.

"Sorry I'm a little late. So what have you two been up to?" Nami asked.

"Nothing really, we just got to meet Rose." Jack replied.

"Rose?" Nami asked.

"She's a new girl that just moved in up in Mineral Town apparently." Jack told her.

Just then Celia walked up to the group.

"Hey Jack, Nami, Keira." She said.

"Hello Celia." Jack said.

Celia then focused her attention over to Keira. "Me and some of my friends from Mineral Town were wondering if I'd like to come and watch the fireworks with us."

Keira looked over at Jack who nodded his head in approval before writing in her notebook. "Sure, I'd love to."

The two then walked over to the other part of the beach where Karen, Elli and Popuri were and began to talk amongst themselves.

"Hm, so I guess now we're alone." Nami said a little happily.

"Yeah, I guess we are." Jack replied.

"So, would you be interested in going somewhere else to see the fireworks Jack?" She asked.

"Sure I guess." He said a little uneasy.

Just as they were about to leave the beach area Jack heard Rose call out to him.

"Jack wait." She said.

"What is it Rose?" Jack asked.

"I just wanted to apologize for getting a little upset earlier." Rose explained. "I didn't mean to get mad at you."

"That's fine, I accept your apology." Jack said.

"Wait; before you go you have a little hair right here on your shirt." Rose said as she reached over and grabbed it. "There you go."

"Thanks." Jack said before turning to face Nami. "Before I forget I'd like you to meet my friend Nami…"

When he turned around to face Rose again though she was gone. "Strange…"

* * *

**A/N: Should get the next bit of this part up by tomorrow.**


	16. Spells and Potions

Rose shut the door to her house and let out a sigh of both exhaustion from running and relief as she leaned up against it. She looked down at her hand and opened it to reveal the strand of Jack's hair that she had kept from earlier, before forming an evil smile. When she looked back up her eyes were no longer brown but instead a shade of red. Suddenly her hair began to shift from brown to a more blonde color and her red dress transformed into to a short purple and grey one, revealing her true identity as the Witch Princess. She had been able to radically change her appearance due to the potion she had taken earlier.

She began to laugh quietly before raising her voice to a much louder tone.

"I finally have what I need." She said.

She walked up to the set of stairs that lead up to her cauldron and extended her hand that held the strand of hair over it.

"And the finally…" She announced before dropping the strand into the brew. "A little piece of Jack himself."

She stepped back and watched as her mixture bubbled around for a moment, accepting her addition to it. Once it began to settle down she lifted her hand up and pointed to a large wooden spoon in the corner causing it to levitate into the air. She waved her hand bringing it over to the cauldron and muttered some words under her breath causing it to begin mixing the substance in it around.

As the spoon continued to mix the potion around the Witch Princess walked over to the shelve that contained the various potions and mixtures and rummaged through it until she found an empty container.

"Running out of ideas?" She said in a maniacal and evil tone. "You think I'm running out of ideas? Let's just see if I don't have any ideas left!"

She removed the container from the shelf and began to walk over back over the cauldron.

"Now you'll see Keira. Now you'll see!" She shouted with a sense of intense anger.

She watched as the spoon to finish mixing the ingredients together before it automatically returned to its spot in the corner.

"Now you'll understand my pain…" She said as she walked up the set of stairs. "Now you'll know what it's like to have someone you care about and trust betray you!"

She dipped the container in the mixture and moved it around before removing taking it out. She raised the now full glass up in front of her and stared at it with her usual evil grin on and a great sense of pride.

"Let's see Jack try to protect you Keira… when he's not in control anymore."

* * *

**A/N: Another short chapter just like the first one, but hey, I love the suspense it gives. Dunno when the next chapter will get up because I might work on my another story for a bit but I'm not sure yet.**


	17. She's in Control

Jack and Nami were seated next to the Harvest Goddess pond as the fireworks continued to light up the sky, though they were more focused on their conversation at the moment.

"So Keira, she's a pretty close friend of yours then?" Nami asked.

"Well she's my roommate but I mean that's pretty much it." Jack told her.

"So you don't like her then?" She asked.

"O-of course not, I mean I'm with you right now. Why would I like her?" He replied a little hasty.

"I don't know." She said as she wrapped her arms around her knees. "It's just how you always seem to hang around with her."

"I did save her from an eternity down in the mine you know." He told her.

"I know, it's this feeling I get from her when she around you." She said.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"It's nothing; let's just enjoy the rest of the fireworks." She said before gazing up at the sky over the beach.

Jack nodded and looked up at the sky as well, watching the remaining fireworks go off. Once they ended the two remained seated in silence for moment.

"That was pretty nice." Jack finally said.

"Yah." Nami replied a little quietly.

"So what did you mean earlier about Keira?" He asked.

"I told you it was nothing." She said. "It's just the way the way she is around you, that's all."

"Well what do you mean by that?" He asked curiously.

"I mean that it's just that sometimes I think she likes you." She said.

He looked at her confused. "Well I told you it's because I saved her fro..."

"Not like that Jack." She interrupted. "I mean I think she likes you for being more than her savoir."

"Ok, now I confused." He said.

"Sometimes when I see her with you she's got this look that just makes it seem like she really enjoys being with you. Sort of as if she likes a lot more than you think she does." She explained.

Jack stared at Nami for a moment before staring over into the pond water.

Nami stood up. "I think I'm going to go home now."

"I guess I'll see you later then." He replied slowly as she left.

He continued to sit by the pond and look up the moon lost in his thoughts and conflicted with his feelings. Did Keira really like him or rather did he himself like Keira? He had always found her to be rather beautiful since the first time he saw her, but had never mentioned it that fact to anyone. There was just something special about her that made him feel close to her but what it was and why it made him feel that way was still a mystery to him.

Deciding that some sleep would do him good Jack eventually stood up and began to walk down the path to return home. He was only about half way down the path beside the river when suddenly he felt as if he had just run into a wall. He froze up for a brief second before falling down to his hands and knees with some sort of pain coming from inside himself. He felt as if his body was trying to fight off some strange force.

"_Just relax…" _He heard a voice in his head tell him.

Suddenly his eyes flashed a red color before changing back to their back to their brown color and then becoming a tad darker. He slowly got back up to his feet and began to look at his arms and legs, making simply movements with them.

"It… it worked." He said to himself.

Suddenly he formed a menacing looking grin.

"This is going to be fun." He said evilly.

Keeping the expression on his face, he resumed his walk back to the farm, acting as if nothing had happened. When he arrived at the house he opened the door and walked in, noticing Keira asleep in bed already. He walked over to the bedside and cast a shadow over her as he stared down at her with a menacing look.

"_Just keep sleeping Keira… you have no idea what's in store for you now."_ He thought to himself as he let out a low chuckle.

Suddenly Jack froze again as he felt that imaginary force remove itself from his body. He leaned against the nightstand next to the bed as he held his head as his eyes became their normal, lighter shade of brown. He looked up over at Keira.

"_Keira? How did I get back here?"_ He thought.

He looked around the room, confused at what had happened. To him, just a moment ago he was on his way home and then suddenly he ended up there. Believing he just must have zoned out on the walk he shrugged off what ever had just happened and walked over to the couch and lied down on it, falling asleep.

* * *

Back at her shack, the Witch Princess awoke on her bed, clutching the potion she had made earlier in her hands. She sat up and looked into the now only slightly full container with her usual evil grin on.

"Excellent..."

* * *

The next morning, Jack and Keira were eating breakfast while talking with one another about each other's previous night.

"How did you like the fireworks last night?" Jack asked.

"I thought they were very beautiful up in the sky. I also enjoyed spending time with Celia and her friends." Keira wrote.

"So did you stay over at the beach with Celia and her friends after they were finished?" He asked.

"No, I was feeling a little tired so I decided to come home." She wrote.

"Oh." He said before eating a fork full of eggs.

"So what about you Nami? Did you two have fun last night?" She wrote causing him to spit out the food in his mouth at the remembrance at their conversation the previous night. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine." He said as he picked up his napkin and wiped his mouth. "Nami and I were alright last night. Just watched the fireworks and talked a bit that's all."

"Ok." She wrote.

The two finished up their meal and cleaned up the kitchen area before leaving the house. As they stepped out, the Witch Princess watched them silently from the shadows of the large tree in the field once more with her potion in hand. She leaned against the tree obscuring herself from their view and uncapped the potion.

"Time for some fun." She said to herself quietly as she took a sip of it and slowly began to drift asleep.

Jack once again felt that strange force attempt to enter his body, only this time it seemed stronger. He placed his hand on his head as he leaned against the house wall and grunted in pain, his eyes once again flashing red and becoming darker.

"Are you ok?" Keira wrote.

"Me?" He asked in a strange tone as he quickly stood straight up. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" She wrote.

"Come on Keira, I'm fine. Trust me." He said putting emphasis on the word trust.

"Alright, so where do you want to go today?" She wrote.

"Why does it always have to be where I want to go?" He asked rather rudely.

"Well it's just that you know this valley better than me." She wrote.

"But you've been alive _so _much longer than me; I would think you'd have more knowledge of the world." He said seeming to upset her.

"Jack, that's not funny." She wrote.

"Who said that was a joke?" He asked. "It's true that you've been alive longer than me. Remember when you used to live up here?"

"Cut that out." She wrote down angrily.

"Come on Keira, it's a joke. Lighten up." He told her.

"That was mean, not funny." She wrote.

"How is that mean? If I were you I'd enjoy all my fond memories of my friends, past life and family. It'd be nice to remember how happy they made me." He said only seeming to upset her with each word.

"Stop it!" She wrote.

"Oh, am I upsetting you?" He asked as he gave her a menacing look.

Keira looked at him as if she was about to cry from everything he was doing. It was only when a tear began to form in her eye and she turned away that Jack's eyes became lighter. He began to hold his head in pain again for a moment before noticing Keira crying.

"Keira what's wrong?" He asked as he placed his hand on her shoulder only to have her jerk it away and turn back around at him with an angry expression on her face.

"What's wrong? That's a pretty stupid question to ask." She wrote.

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

"Making fun of me then pretending to forget isn't going to work Jack." She wrote.

"Make fun of you?" He asked in disbelief that he would do such I thing.

The Witch Princess continued to watch and listen to the two argue from behind the tree after she awoke, smiling as Keira seemed to get more and more upset with Jack. She only felt truly satisfied with herself when she watched as Keira stormed off away from Jack as he attempted to apologize.

* * *

**A/N: First chapter in a while so it might not be the best. R&R.**


	18. Struck

Jack pleaded for Keira to listen to him as he followed her as she marched her way over to the Goddess Pond.

"Keira please just listen to me!" He shouted to her.

She didn't seem to be listening though as she continued to walk towards the pond. When she reached it she stood in front of the pond and looked down at the ground as he stood behind her.

"Just please listen." He pleaded.

She continued to stare at the ground for a moment before turning around with an angry expression on.

"Look I didn't say anything about you." He said.

"Stop lying!" She wrote down angrily.

"I'm not though!" He said getting aggravated with her. "What did _I_ even say?"

"You called me old and told me to remember how happy everything I lost made me." She wrote.

"Keira I would never say anything rude to you. You know that." He said.

"Then why did you?" She wrote.

"I didn't though!" He shouted.

Keira just looked at him, unable to believe what he was doing to her.

"Ok look," He said lowering his voice and motioning for her to calm down. "I don't remember saying any of this but if it'll make you feel better I'm sorry."

She looked at him for a moment before writing. "I guess I can accept your apology… _if_ you tell me why you did it."

"I guess I just wasn't thinking straight." He told her. "What ever happened back at the house won't happen again, I promise."

"Alright Jack, I trust you." She wrote.

"Come on, let's go for a walk. It'll make you feel better." He said.

As the two walked away from the pond the Witch Princess emerged from behind the bushes behind the Harvest Sprite tree, watching as they left.

"We'll see what does and doesn't happen again Jack…" She said to herself as she faded away.

Suddenly Keira crossed her arms and shivered.

"I guess the winds picking up." Jack said.

* * *

The Witch Princess began to take possession of Jack at on daily basis after that day, though she didn't cause either of them any harm this time. She simply acted as if she was Jack during the duration of the possession in an effort to maintain her cover, going about what ever business he was about at the time. She seemed to be doing this in order to keep close watch on Keira, even during the middle of the night when she was writing in her notebook, almost as if she was waiting for something. Regardless of what her intentions were, all the time she was causing Jack to lose was causing a great deal of stress to him. He constantly complained about how he was constantly blanking out for extended periods of time and losing hours of sleep for some unknown reason, unaware at what was really going on.

"I just don't get it Hardy, why do I keep blanking out every day?" Jack asked the doctor as he sat in his house.

"I really can't say for sure why." Hardy told him.

"What do you mean? There's got to be some reason."Jack said.

"I don't know what to tell you Jack, I've never seen anything like this before." Hardy told him.

"Are you saying I'm crazy then?" Jack asked.

"No, no, no all I mean is that as far as I know there's no true explanation towards why you keep suffering from this. Maybe you just get lost in your thoughts too much." Hardy said.

"What do you mean?" Jack asked.

"Well it's just that you could be thinking about something so much that you just forget about what you're doing at the time." Hardy explained. "Is there something bothering you?"

"No, there's nothing troubling me." Jack said lying about his recent thoughts towards Keira. "Thanks for your help though."

"You know sometimes I think you're going to end up in my office every season." Hardy told him as he left.

* * *

The following fall morning Jack and Keira were cleaning up their dishes from breakfast when Jack suddenly dropped the plate he was holding as the Witch Princess once again took control of him.

"Are you alright Jack?" Keira wrote.

"I'm fine, just dropped a plate. Nothing wrong with that is there?" He asked.

"No." She wrote a feeling a little confused by his response.

"Then stop making a big deal about it." He said.

"What's with you recently? You haven't been yourself lately." She wrote.

"What the hell is that suppose to mean?" He asked angrily.

"Nothing Jack just please calm down." She wrote fearfully.

"Don't try to tell me what to do." He said.

"I'm sorry." She wrote.

"Good." He said before thinking for a moment.

"What is it?" She wrote.

"Nothing, I'm just wondering what you've been writing notebook the past few nights." He said surprising her.

"What do you mean? I don't write in my notebook at night." She wrote down nervously.

"Don't lie to me. I've seen you writing in it in the middle of the night. What are you writing about?" He asked.

"Nothing." She wrote.

"Then let me see your notebook." He said holding out his hand.

"No." She wrote before holding it away from him.

"Come just let me look at it." He said as he took a step towards her only to have her step back. "I said let me see it."

He reached for the notebook and grabbed on to it but she pulled it away and gave him a slight push.

"Looks like a have to do this the hard way." He said causing her to become afraid.

He reached for the notebook and grabbed onto it and began to pull it out of her hands. She tried to pull it back but he was pulling it harder than before making it difficult for her to keep her grip on it.

"Let me see it!" Jack shouted.

He gripped onto one of her arms and squeezed on it causing her to take it off the notebook out of pain. He then proceeded to smack her across the face causing her to let go of the book with the other hand and fall to the ground. Suddenly Jack's eyes became lighter. He looked down at the notebook in his hands before looking down at Keira sitting down on the ground looking at him with tears in her eyes and a large red mark on the side of her face.

"Keira…"

Before he could continue she quickly got up and ran towards the door, leaving behind a trail of tears.

"Keira wait!" Jack shouted as he ran after her.

Keira ran all the way over to Vesta's farm and over to Celia who was busy tending to some of the crops in the field.

"Keira what's the matter?" Celia asked her as she latched onto her.

Being without her notebook Keira continued to cry as Celia held onto her.

"What's wrong?" Celia asked again.

"Keira!" They both heard Jack shout.

Keira turned around and when she saw Jack walking up to them she quickly hid behind Celia.

"Keira there you are." Jack said before noticing Celia staring back at her angrily.

"What do you do to her?" She shouted.

"I… I didn't do anything." He replied as truthfully as he could.

"Then why does she seem so afraid of you?" She asked.

"I don't know. One second we were cleaning dishes and the next thing I know she was on the ground with a mark on her face crying." He told her.

"You hit her?" She asked furiously.

"I don't know!" He said "I blanked out again."

"Like that's a good excuse." She said.

"But I'm telling the truth!" He shouted.

"I think you should go." She said angrily.

Jack looked at Celia for a moment before realizing how serious she was. He turned around to leave but stopped himself and faced them again.

"Here." Jack said quietly as he handed Celia Keira's notebook.

She gently took it from him without saying a word. He looked over at Keira who was still crying behind Celia before hanging his head down in shame and then walking away.

* * *

**A/N: There's some foreshadowing here about what some of the later chapters are centered around but it's nothing major. Anyway please R&R if you wish, I really appreciate it.**


	19. Stay Away

Later that day, Keira continued to cry as she sat beside Celia as they both sat on her bed.

"It's ok; just tell me what happened when you're ready." Celia said.

Keira continued to cry for a few more moments before wiping away her tears.

"So what happened?" Celia asked.

"Jack, he hit me." Keira wrote painfully at the remembrance of that event.

"Why would he hit you?" Celia asked. "I thought he cared about you."

"It's because I wouldn't let him see my notebook." Keira wrote.

"Why did he want to see it?" Celia asked.

"He said that he watches me write in it during the middle of the night and wanted to see what I was writing about." Keira wrote.

"Well do you write in it during the night?" Celia asked.

Keira hesitated for a moment before writing. "Yes."

"What do you write about?" Celia asked.

"It's nothing, just my thoughts that's all." Keira wrote.

"Then why didn't you just show him?" Celia asked.

"Because," Keira wrote before stopping for a moment. "They're personal and I don't want him to see them that's all."

"Some of them are about him aren't they?" Celia asked.

Keira hesitated again before writing. "Yes. Sometimes I'll write about how I feel about him."

"What do you mean?" Celia asked.

"I just feel confused about my feelings for him, I mean he did rescue me from the mines and take me in but sometimes I just wonder why he did. I'm not that special." Keira wrote.

"Well he does care about you." Celia said.

"I know, but after what he did today I just don't know if that's true anymore." Keira wrote upsetting herself.

"I wish I could tell you that he had a real reason for why he hit you but I just can't think of anything." Celia told her.

"I just don't get it Celia. Ever since the fireworks festival he hasn't been himself. He's been acting really strange, I mean one moment he's acting all tired and then a second later he's incredibly happy. It scares me; I don't want to see my best friend like this." Keira wrote.

"Keira you have to calm down. I know that Jack's been acting a little different lately but I'm sure he'll come to his sense and act normal again at some point." Celia said trying to comfort her.

"But that what if he doesn't? What if he attacks me again?" Keira wrote.

"Don't worry, I'm sure he won't." Celia said.

"Do you think so?" Keira wrote.

"We can only hope. In the meantime you can stay here, just in case he tries to hurt you again." Celia told her.

"Thank you." Keira wrote.

* * *

Back at the farm house Jack was sitting on the bed with his face buried in his hands. He was overwhelmed with guilt and disbelief at the day's earlier event.

"_Hit Keira?" _He thought frantically. _"Could I really have hit Keira?"_

The thought of doing such a thing or anything remotely similar had never once entered his mind since he had met her and he wouldn't have believe he had done such a thing if he hadn't seen the proof of it. The image of Keira sitting on the ground, her eyes full of fear and tears, and the side of her face bearing that red mark that resembled his hand was still fresh in his mind. He hated himself for allowing such a thing to happen and believed that Keira would never forgive him; rather he wanted her to never forgive him because at that time he wouldn't forgive himself.

"Hello Jack." He heard the Witch Princess say.

He looked up to see her figure begin to appear sitting at the table, seeming to be bored with something.

"How are you today?" She asked.

"Go away; I don't have time for your games." He replied.

"Really? What seems to be the problem?" She asked.

"I don't want to talk about it alright." He told her.

"Come on Jack, I'm your friend right? You can tell me." She said a little mischievously.

"No, just go away." He said.

"You seem pretty upset, whatever happened must have been awful." She said.

"I hit Keira alright." He said in an aggravated tone. "I…I just hit her."

"Now why could that be?" She asked.

"I don't know." He said sounding upset. "I just don't know how it happened."

"Maybe if you had just left her be down in the mines this wouldn't have happened." She said.

"What?" He asked confused.

"What's the matter Jack? Still don't get it?" She asked.

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

"Come on Jack, I thought you were smarter than this. All these times you've been losing control of yourself and blanking out have all been thanks to me. I thought _you_ would have at least figured this out by now." She explained.

"You!" He shouted in anger as he stomped over to her only for her to maintain her bored like appearance. "You made me hit Keira didn't you?"

"Of course I did. Why wouldn't I?" She asked sounding unaffected by his anger.

He stared at her with intense anger.

"What? Are we at a loss of words there?" She asked menacingly.

Unable to keep in his anger Jack slammed his fist against the table, almost as if he was ready to hit her, causing the Witch Princess to disappear. Still angry but a little satisfied a learning it wasn't his fault he hit Keira he turned around only to see the Witch Princess sitting on his bed, seemingly lost in the potion that she now held in her hands.

"Funny thing this potion." She began. "It allows me to take control of whomever provided the hair strand used to make it, though I have to be fall asleep in order to take control."

Jack continued to stare at her, furious.

"You really should calm down Jack. You might end up hitting someone you care about." She said mockingly.

Jack took a step towards her.

"Watch it Jack. One wrong move and I can make you do far worse things to Keira." She told him causing him to stop in his tracks.

"You wouldn't dare." He said in anger.

"Shall we find out?" She asked as she placed her hand on the cap of the potions container.

He stared angrily at her for a moment before becoming less tense, giving in to her.

"That's a good little farmer now." She said as she removed her hand from the lid.

"What do you want?" He asked.

"Oh, nothing from you." She said seeming to surprise him before she continued. "Just stay away from Keira."

"What?" He asked in disbelief.

"Just keep your distance from her." She told him.

"How is that suppose to help you?" He asked.

"Being separated from someone she cares about so much is bound to cause a good deal of stress to an already weak girl like Keira." She told him making him angry again. "But I need time to figure out what I'm going to do with her."

"You're not going to hurt her are you?" He asked.

"Maybe not this time, but I'll figure out something out." She said as she stood up, the potion disappearing from her hands. "Just remember what I told you Jack, stay away from her. Unless of course, you want me to make you hurt her again but I know you won't want that to happen since you care so much about her."

And with that, she was gone.

* * *

**A/N: Please R&R if you wish.**


	20. Snap Out of It

Knowing that she would stay true to her word about making him hurt Keira, Jack had no choice but to follow the Witch Princess orders and stay away from her. At first he thought he could get by these demands without much trouble but only after a few days did it truly begin to have an effect on him. There was just something upsetting to him about now waking up in the morning in his own bed, alone, without her there to brighten up his day. There was no one to share meals with, no one to take walks with, and no one to just hang around the house with anymore.

He attended the harvest festival later that season in hopes that it would provide a chance for the two to talk but when Keira arrived he felt a menacing wind rush past him blowing any of those hopes away. As soon as she noticed him she began to walk over towards him and began to write something down but as the wind began to blow harder he silently walked away, leaving Keira alone and confused. All the free time he now had combined with the fact that the Witch Princess had lifted the curse on his farm lead him to begin farming again, though buying seeds became an incredibly painful process to him. It hurt him to have to go over to Vesta's farm and buy seeds there as Keira would watch from the distance as he refused to even glance over at her; there was even a day where she had left the room silently in tears. He could only image how upset he was making her.

* * *

The temperature began to decline as fall reached its end. Jack was making his way home after his last trip of the year to Vesta's for seeds when Celia walked up to him.

"Hello Jack." She greeted.

"Hey Celia." He replied quietly.

"If you're not too busy I was wondering if you could give me and hand with something in the shed." She told him.

"Sure, I guess I can help." He said.

She led him over to the shed and opened the door for him to enter. He walked inside shortly followed by Celia who shut the door and then stood in front of it with her arms crossed.

"What's your problem?" She asked harshly.

"What?" He asked confused at what was going on.

"You know what I'm talking about. Why are you being such a jerk to Keira?" She asked just as angry as before.

Jack looked around the room as if he was looking for someone. "I… I can't tell you."

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Look, it's not my fault I've been ignoring Keira alright." He told her.

"I don't think you understand how much you're hurting her." She began angrily. "She thinks that you hate her. She gets incredibly upset when you come over here and starts to cry. Sometimes she tells me that she would rather be back down in the mine where you can't hurt her like this."

"Celia please I want to tell you but why I've been acting this way but I just can't." He said.

"Why not?" Celia asked.

"I just can't, now please just let me leave." He said.

He walked up to her and placed his hand on the knob but Celia refused to move from her position.

"I'm not moving Jack, not until you tell me what's going on." She told him.

He sighed.

"Well what is it?" She asked.

"It's the Witch Princess alright." He told her, making her less tense.

"What she doing now?" She asked her voice sound much softer than before.

"Everything, she's the reason I hurt Keira's feelings, refuse to talk to her and… you know… hit her." He said still unable to accept the fact he allowed that to happen even though it was out of his control.

"But how?" She asked.

"It's this potion of hers, it lets her take control of me whenever she wants and she's using it to try and get back at Keira." He explained.

"Wait; get back at Keira for what?" She asked unfamiliar with the subject.

"I don't know, she said that she stole something from her long ago and that's the whole reason that she cursed her to live down in the mine. Not even Keira seems to know what it was that she exactly stole from her. " He told her.

"So she's been controlling you this whole time?" She asked.

"Well not exactly." He began. "She's stopped possessing me ever since she made me strike Keira in exchange that I stay away from her. She told me that if I don't listen to her she'll make me hurt her even more."

"So you still care about her?" She asked.

"Of course I do! I don't want to ignore her and making her upset. I'd never forgive myself if I ended up driving her back to that cold dark room of hers down in the mine." He told her.

"You have to tell her about this then." She told him.

"I can't." He said.

"Jake she has to know." She said looking upset. "She's really hurt right now."

"You think I don't know that?" He asked sounding just as upset.

"You have to at least try to tell her." She told him.

He sighed once more. "Alright, go and bring her out here and I'll tell her."

Celia nodded and turned around to open the door.

"But if I start to act strange I want you to get her away from me." He warned. "I don't want to hurt her again."

"Alright Jack, wait here." She said as left the room and walked over to the house next door.

He walked outside of the shed and stood in front of it in anticipation. Suddenly he felt that menacing wind again followed by a wicked laugh.

"No! Go away!" He shouted as he looked around.

"_I warned you Jack." _He heard the Witch Princesses voice say calmly. _"I told you to stay away. Now it looks like you're going to have to suffer for your mistake."_

He fell to the ground and held his head as the Witch Princess took control of him once more. He stood up and began to laugh evilly, forming a strange smile as he did so. He looked over at the house as he heard the door open and watched as Celia emerged with Keira following shyly behind her.

"I know you might not want to see him right now but Jack has something to tell you." Celia told her.

Keira simply held her notebook against her chest trying not to look up at him. Celia looked at him and motioned for him to speak.

"It's been a while hasn't it Keira?" Jack asked her quietly.

She opened her notebook and began to write. "What do you want Jack?"

"I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry." He began.

Keira began to write in her notebook.

"Or should I say, sorry for what Jack's about to do next." He finished.

Celia immediately became fearful and walked next to Keira.

"Get away from him Keira." Celia said in a frightened tone as she began to back her away.

"What's wrong Celia? Is there a problem?" Jack asked as he walked up to them.

Keira looked at Celia with a mixture of fear and confusion on her face.

"That's not Jack talking Keira, it's the Witch Princess. She's controlling him again." Celia explained.

"Looks like I wasn't the only one paying attention earlier." Jack said with a low laugh.

"Go away and leave Jack alone!" Celia shouted.

"I'm afraid I can't do that Celia, I warned Jack if he tried to talk to Keira this would happen." Jack told them.

Celia attempted to push Jack away from her and Keira but she only managed to get him a few steps back. He laughed before swiping at Celia, knocking her away on the ground.

"Jack snap out of it!" Keira wrote frantically.

"You think that's going to work?" Jack asked as he began to walk up to her.

"Please Jack!" Keira wrote.

"Now I'll finally get my revenge, after all these years you'll finally pay!" Jack shouted at her.

"Leave her alone!" Celia shouted.

"Stay out of this unless you want to get hurt too." Jack said looking back at her.

"Jack please I know you don't want to do this." Keira wrote.

"I'm afraid he can't see what you have to say Keira." Jack said with another evil laugh.

He took another step towards her causing her to step back and trip on a rock behind her.

"This is going to be fun." Jack said as he now stood over Keira.

He raised his hand up as if he was going to hit strike her again as she grabbed her notebook, lying next to her, and used it to shield herself.

"Jack look at what you're doing!" Celia shouted causing him to freeze up

He appeared to be struggling with finishing the motion causing Keira look at him from behind her notebook.

"Why won't you move, damn it?" Jack asked.

"Fight it Jack! We know you can do it!" Celia shouted.

"Shut up!" Jack shouted as he faced Celia only to see Keira in front of him when he turned around again.

"Come on Jack, snap out of it." Keira wrote.

"No! Don't encourage him!" Jack shouted.

"Please Jack; I know you didn't want to hurt me all this time. I forgive you." Keira wrote.

Jack shook his head and blink, his eyes their normal color when they reopened.

"W… what?" He asked calmly.

"I forgive you, for everything. Just please snap out of it." Keira wrote.

He looked at her confused.

"_NO! Attack her!"_ He heard the Witch Princess voice scream in his head as he began to hold it again.

He looked back up at Keira, his eyes flashing red before getting dark.

"I won't lose control! I will make you suffer!" He shouted at Keira.

He raised his hand again ready to attack as Keira remained motionless in front of him, hanging her head down in defeat.

"Stop it Jack!" Celia shouted as she came up from behind and grabbed on to his arm and pulled it behind his back.

"Let go!" Jack hollered.

"Look at her Jack! Look at Keira!" Celia commanded.

He looked at Keira as he continued to try and get his arm free. She slowly looked up at him with an intense feeling of sadness in her eyes.

"Get out of my head!" Jack shouted.

"_No! I won't lose again!"_

"I won't let you make me hurt her again!" Jack shouted.

"_She has to suffer! It's only fair!"_

"Fight it Jack!" Celia said.

"Get out!" Jack yelled.

"_No! No! No!"_

He looked at Keira who looked like she was about to cry.

"Keira…" Jack said softly.

His eyes suddenly began to fade back to their lighter color. Celia let go of him as he fell down onto his hands and began to take slow deep breaths in an effort to calm down.

"Are you alright Jack?" Celia asked, still keeping her distance from him.

He continued to breathe for a moment. "Yeah, yeah I think so."

He stood up to his feet and looked at Keira who still appeared to be frightened by him.

"It's ok Keira; I can't hear the Witch Princess in my head anymore." He told her in a calm voice.

Keira remind silent as she stared at him for a moment before walking up and embracing him, happy to have him back to normal.

* * *

Back in her shack the Witch Princess took another sip of the potion she had been using to control Jack only for it to have no effect.

"Come on work!" She said as she took another sip. "Work!"

She continued drink from it for another minute, cursing every time it failed to work.

"Argh! This is useless!" She screamed. "How can he be blocking me out?"

She tightened her grip on the potion in anger.

"This… isn't… fair!" She shouted as she broke the container in her hands turning it into black dust.

She felt as if she was about to go insane. She was certain that that potion would've been the one that would have finally gotten her that feeling of triumph over Keira that she so desperately wanted, but instead she had lost due some unknown force that was now inside of Jack that prevented her from taking control of him. She slammed her fist on her desk in rage.

She then took a deep breath. "Calm down, calm down I can get past this. I just need to try a different approach that's all…"

* * *

**A/N: Please R&R.**


	21. Seventeenth of Spring

Even though Celia had given her a brief synopsis of the recent events that befell him, Jack still told Keira about everything the Witch Princess had told him later that day. He told her about how she was the one that had caused him to strike her and how she had threatened him about keeping his distance from her. She couldn't have been more relieved to hear that he still cared about her and forgave him for everything though it technically wasn't his fault. Believing it was now safe since the Witch Princess no longer had control over him, Keira moved back in with Jack.

Another regular winter day was ending for the two as they ate their dinner, unknown to either of them that they were being watched through the window. Believing she had now found what would truly be the solution to her feud with Keira, the Witch Princess anxiously watched them with an old spell book of hers in hand, waiting for them to go to sleep. When she saw Keira finish with the dishes and begin to head towards her bed she began to flip through the pages of her books as she continued to watch.

"This had better work." The Witch Princess said to herself as she looked down at the book and smiled. _"Who am I kidding? This will work."_

As soon as Keira shut her eyes the Witch Princess began to chant the words on the page. As she continued to read from the book the world around her began to seemingly freeze up before slowly fading away.

* * *

When Keira awoke from her sleep she sat up in bed and stretched, looking around the room with her eyes half open before widening them in surprise.

"_Could, could this be?"_ She thought as she looked around.

It was. She was back in her room of her old castle once again, only this time she wasn't sure if it was reality or not. Everything she remembered was still there from the expensive looking regal furniture that matched her yellow dress and adorned her room to the large frilly bed she sat in.

"_This can't be." _She thought.

She got out of bed and walked over to the large glass doors beside it that lead to her courtyard balcony and opened them, walking outside.

"_This has to be a dream."_ She thought as she gazed at the garden below her.

It just couldn't be a dream though. She could feel the sun's heat warm her body and the gently spring breeze blow past her. Confused at what was going on, she walked back into the room and sat down on the edge of her bed. She sat there lost in her thoughts when suddenly the door opened surprising her.

One of her many maids entered the room carrying some spare sheets and noticed Keira sitting on the bed, staring back at her in shock. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to surprise you Keira."

"It's Ok." Keira said before gasping and coving her mouth at the fact she could speak.

"Is something wrong?" The maid asked.

"No nothing's wrong, I just felt something in my throat that's all." Keira told her as she removed her hands from her mouth.

"Oh well alright. I just came to bring you some spare sheets." The maid said as she walked over and placed them on the bed.

She gave her a small bow before turning around and walking towards the door.

"What day is it today?" Keira asked.

"It's the seventeenth? Yes, the seventeenth of spring today." The maid replied.

"Thank you, that'll be all." Keira said as she rested her head on her hands as the maid left her room.

"_The seventeenth of spring…"_ She thought with great confusion and shock.

The seventeenth of spring. If her memory was correct, it was that day when she was suppose to begin her long time of isolation down in the mine. Yet there she was, on the surface as if it never happened. She looked around the room frantically and pinched herself to see if she would wake up back in Forget-Me-Not Valley but it worked to no avail. This was no dream, everything around her was indeed, real.

"_Could it have all just been a dream?"_ She thought concerning the events of what she thought had been the previous years of her life.

Could the Witch Princess, the years of solitude in the mine, and her friends Jack and Celia really have all just been one complex dream? All that suffering, pain and happiness she had felt from everything and everyone couldn't have been a dream; she had felt it all as if it was real. She got up and walked over to the window overlooking the town in front of the castle and watched as the townspeople went about their business.

"It couldn't have been a dream." Keira said to herself. "It couldn't have been!"

She over to her bed and picked up the notebook lying on the dresser nearby that looked identical to the one she had back in Valley.

"There has to be something in here! There has to!" She shouted.

She flipped through all the pages to see if all her diary entries and conversations with everyone were still recorded inside but the pages were all empty, every single one of them.

"No…" She whispered.

She placed the notebook back down on the dresser in sadness as the door opened, only this time it was her mother who entered.

"Are you alright Keira?" She asked. "I thought I heard you yelling."

Keira looked at her mother as she stood before her, the first time she had seen here in years, or at least it felt that way to her.

"Mom…?" Keira asked quietly in disbelief.

Her mother gave her a warm smile. She like everything else in the room, was real. Keira ran up and embraced her mother and began to cry tears of happiness.

"What's wrong Keira?" Her mother asked.

"Oh mom I had the most awful dream! I dreamed that I lost you, dad and everything! It was horrible!" Keira cried.

"There, there Keira. It's alright, I'm still here." Her mother told her as she rubbed her back to calm her down.

"But it felt so real!" Keira told her.

"It was only a dream Keira, it can't hurt you." Her mother told her.

Keira continued to cry for another moment before looking up at her mother's smiling face.

"Come on, let's go for a walk, I'm sure it'll cheer you up." Her mother said as she placed her hand on her face.

Keira began to smile.

"There's a smile. Come along now; well go for a nice walk in the town. Who knows, maybe while we're there you'll find a suitor you like." Her mother told her causing Keira's smile to fade away. "Is something wrong?"

"No." Keira replied. "I'll be out in a minute. Just let me get ready."

"Alright, don't be too long now." Her mother said as she left the room and shut the door.

As soon as her mother mentioned the word suitor Keira's thoughts had immediately shifted to Jack. She began to walk back out on the balcony as she became flooded the feelings he had created for her in her dream. She refused to believe that he was simply a figment of her imagination, even if it was true.

She gazed out at the courtyard garden once again._ "Jack… you couldn't have been fake, you couldn't have…"_

Everything he had ever said to her and every time they had laid hands on each other, even when he hit her, had all felt too real. The feelings of compassion and happiness he gave of had felt like that of a real persons, not someone in a dream. He had done for her what none of these suitors of hers could do, he cared about her for something other than her beauty, voice, and power. Why he did all that of that for her was still a mystery to her but she knew that he had cared deeply about her. Everything Keira had just experienced pointed to him just being part of her complicated dream but she couldn't accept the fact that he was fake.

"Jack…" She whispered to herself as she placed her hand over her heart.

* * *

**A/N: A little dramatic and possibly sad right? R&R.**


	22. Stay or Go?

The weather outside continued to remain fair as Keira and her mother walked around the town outside their castle's walls. As they walked the young men of the town became entranced by Keira began to follower her, something she was used to. 'Marry me! Talk to us! We love you!' they would shout to her from time to time as they gazed at her with loving eyes. Her mother would giggle and laugh in amusement at them as they professed their love for her daughter but Keira continued to remain silent, still in deep thought about Jack.

"Is something wrong Keira?" Her mother asked.

"Huh?" Keira asked losing her train of thought.

"You don't seem like yourself today. You haven't said anything to any of these gentlemen here." Her mother said glancing back at the long line of suitors following them.

"I'm just a little tired that's all." Keira replied.

She turned around and gave a small wave with a small forced smile on to the men behind her causing most of them freeze up and stare at her, love struck.

They continued to walk through the town until they were stopped by a familiar looking woman. She had long brown hair that matched the color of her eyes and was wearing a long red dress, just like the women her and Jack had met at the fireworks festival in her dream.

"Hello again Princess Keira, your Majesty." She said giving them a little curtsy.

"Again?" Keira asked in confusion.

"You don't remember? We met at the festival here about a week ago remember? My name's Rose." She told them causing Keira to become startled.

Keira's mother looked at Rose closely for a second. "Oh yes I remember you. Remember Keira? I believe you danced with her husband there for a while."

"Fiancé, he's my fiancé." Rose corrected, hiding a small feeling of anger as she spoke.

"Yes, I remember." Keira said still surprised.

"Well just thought I'd say hi again. Bye." Rose said as she waved goodbye to them and walked away.

"Well isn't that nice to see a friend out here?" Keira's mother asked.

"Yes, that was nice." Keira replied uneasily.

* * *

When they returned back to the castle Keira went back into her room and stared out at the garden again. It seemed that she had her old life back and that she'd just have to accept the fact that everything she had previously thought to be real was fake. The gentle breeze from outside blew past her and into her room.

"Enjoying your stay Keira?" She heard a familiar voice ask from inside her room.

She turned around to see Rose standing in the middle of her room. "Rose, how did you get in here?"

"I just flew in that's all." Rose replied.

"What?" Keira asked, confused.

Rose looked down at her dress. "Oh I see. Let me change my appearance to something more, familiar."

She snapped her fingers and her eyes flashed and began to shift to a red color. Her straight brown hair began to become messy and blonde, her dress changed into a dark gray and purple one and her shoes turned into small fuzzy boots.

"Now do you recognize me?" She asked calmly despite Keira leaning back against the railing of the balcony in fear.

"Y-y-you…" Keira stuttered.

"Calm down Keira, I'm not here to hurt you." The Witch Princess said as she approached Keira as she become only slightly less tense.

"What are you doing here? I thought I just dreamt about you." Keira said still in fear.

"Keira, Keira, Keira." The Witch Princess began shaking her head. "Everything that happened in the valley to you was no dream.

"What?" Keira asked in disbelief.

"Do I have to explain everything to everyone all the time?" The Witch Princess asked. "I've made it as if I've never cursed you now."

"What do you mean?" Keira asked as she began to stand up straight.

"What do you mean what do I mean?" The Witch Princess asked sounding a little aggravated. "Since hurting you had no effect I decided to take a different approach with what to do with you and well here we are."

"But how?" Keira asked.

"'But how?'" The Witch Princess said mockingly. "With magic of course, I am a witch after all."

"But what about Jack, Celia and everyone back in the valley? We're they all real?" Keira asked.

"Of course they were everyone you met and everything that happened to you in the valley when you were there was real." The Witch Princess explained.

"But what's going to happen to them now?" Keira asked.

"Time will go on and they'll exist only you won't be there. They do live in the future after all." The Witch Princess told her.

"So I'll never get to see them again?" Keira sadly asked.

"Of course not, without me cursing you to live down in the mine for all eternity you won't be able to live long enough to see them." The Witch Princess said.

Keira placed her hand over her heart once more and looked down.

"Though there is one way you can see them again." The Witch Princess said sounding a little unamused causing Keira to look up.

"What is it?" Keira asked.

"This spell isn't permanent, or at least not yet." The Witch Princess began.

"What do you mean?" Keira interrupted.

"If you'll let me finish I'll tell you." The Witch Princess said, the aggravated tone returning to her voice. "You see this spell will only become permanent if the person it's used on agrees to it. In other words you have until the end of the day to decide if this is what you want. At midnight if you tell me this is what you want then everything will remain as it is now, if this isn't what you want then time will pick up right when I used this spell on you."

"So I can go back to the valley if I don't agree with this?" Keira asked.

The Witch Princess nodded her head.

"But then I'll lose everything all over again right?" Keira asked.

The Witch Princess nodded her head again. "If you choose to go back then everything will go back to '_normal._' I'll have cursed you, Jack will find you, I'll try all my tricks again and eventually you'll gain control of yourself exactly when I used this spell."

Keira's expression suddenly became sad.

"You have until midnight Keira to think it over. I know you'll make the right choice." The Witch Princess told her as she began to fade away.

"No! Don't go yet!" Keira shouted as she ran up and tried to grab the Witch Princess only for her hands to go through her as if she were a ghost.

She was gone.

* * *

Keira spent the rest of the day sitting on her bed, hugging one of her pillows, thinking of what she should do. Sure for a while she had wanted to return back to her old life and family but now that she had it she no longer wanted it. There was just something missing now that living in the past couldn't supply and she knew what that was. It was Jack. She wanted to be with him again but could she really lose everything all over again by choice in order to see him. She clutched onto the pillow tighter as if it was him.

The door suddenly opened and her mother walked in again.

"Keira what's wrong?" She asked.

"Nothing mom, I'm fine." Keira replied, not even glancing up at her.

"Come on Keira I can tell that you're lying." Her mother said as she walked over to the bed and sat down beside her. "You haven't been yourself and you've been sitting her in your room all day. You didn't even come out for dinner."

A lone tear fell from Keira's eye as she sighed.

"What's troubling you?" Her mother asked.

"You know that dream I told you about this morning?" Keira asked.

"The one where you said you lost everything?" Her mom asked as Keira nodded her head. "What about it?"

"It wasn't a dream, it was real." Keira said.

"What do you mean?" Her mother asked.

"It was all real, everything. Today I was supposed to have my voice stolen by a witch who would then curse me to live down below the surface for all eternity. Eventually I'm found by this farmer named Jack who brings me back up to the surface but by the time that happens you, dad, and the kingdom are all gone but that witch is still alive. She found out that I was back and she tried to hurt me and Jack but he was always there to defend me. So she decided to change everything and make it as if she had never cursed me." Keira explained.

"Then what's the problem?" Her mother asked.

"When the witch came and explained to me what she had done she also told me that this spells effects weren't permanent yet. I have to decide by midnight if this is what I want." Keira told her.

"Well you're going to choose to stay here aren't you?" Her mother asked sounding concerned.

"I want to, but it's just that…" Keira began before stopping.

"It's just what?" Her mother asked.

"That farmer, Jack… I… I don't want to leave him." Keira told her clutching on to the pillow even tighter.

"Why not?" Her mother asked.

"Mom I… I think that I… I..." Keira began before stopping again.

Her mother looked closely at her. "You love him don't you?"

Keira become surprised at the word love. "I… I don't know. I mean he was also so kind and caring to me and I never even did anything for him. I lived with him enough that I just don't want to leave him without saying goodbye."

"So if you choose to see him again then you have to leave everything here behind?" Her mother asked.

"The witch told me that if I tell her I don't like what this spell has done then today will have never happened and everything will go back to normal with me going missing and ending up getting found by Jack while you and dad probably end up getting worried sick about me." Keira explained.

"Keira, you're my daughter and you know you mean the world to me." Her mother told her.

"I know but I just can't choose mom! I don't want to leave you and dad and cause you both so much trouble but I just can't bring myself to leave Jack!" Keira cried.

"Calm down Keira." Her mother said as she once again began to rub back.

"What am I suppose to do?" Keira asked.

"I can't tell you what to do Keira, this is your choice. All I can tell you to do is follow your heart. It will tell you which path to take." Her mother told her.

"But I just don't know which one is the right one! I don't want to leave either of you!" Keira cried.

Her mother looked at her compassionately.

"I don't know how Jack will live his life if I don't enter it but I just know that I'll be hurting everyone here if I choose to be with him." Keira said.

"Keira, you're my daughter. Nothing you ever do can make me upset." Her mother told her.

"I… I just don't know." Keira said.

"Keira you still have to think things over. I'm your mother and I'll support whatever choice you make whichever one it is because I know it'll be your choice and only you know what's best for you." Her mother told her.

"Thank you mom." Keira said.

"I have to go and help your father now." Her mother told her.

Keira watched as her mother began to walk over to the door before turning around in front of the door.

"Just know Keira that your father and I always love you no matter where you are and no matter what choice you make, even the other versions of us that'll exist if you choose to leave." Her mother said before turning around and leaving.

* * *

Keira continued to sit on her bed thinking over her choice throughout the evening. As the clock in the room neared midnight the glass doors leading to the balcony opened and the wind began to blow in and circle around in the center of room, the Witch Princess figure forming in the center.

"Good evening Keira." The Witch Princess greeted calmly.

Keira remained silent as she continued to hold onto her pillow.

The Witch Princess sighed. "I didn't think it'd be this hard for you to make a choice."

Keira looked up at the Witch Princess. "Please, you have to give me more time to think."

"I'm sorry Keira but I'm afraid I can't do that." The Witch Princess said.

"Please you have to. I just can't choose." Keira pleaded.

"How can you not choose? Here you live a life of luxury and power; why on earth would you want to me to take this away from you?" The Witch Princess asked.

"Because... I just don't want to leave Jack." Keira answered.

"Jack?" The Witch Princess asked in disbelief. "Why do you care about him?"

"Be-because…" Keira stuttered.

The Witch Princess looked at her closely just like her mother had. "Oh, I get it. You shouldn't bother with him Keira, after all he loves Nami not you."

Keira hugged her pillow tighter as she fought off tears created by that remark.

"Now tell me Keira, are you going to stay or go?"

* * *

**A/N: Nother cliffhanger, what can I say? **


	23. Starry Night Trouble

Keira remained silent as the clock continued to get closer and closer to midnight.

"Well?" The Witch Princess asked.

"I… I…" Keira began before breaking off.

"You have to choose!" The Witch Princess shouted beginning to get angry.

"I can't!" Keira cried.

"How is this difficult?" The Witch Princess asked. "There's no point in you choosing to leave this life behind."

Keira hugged her pillow again. "But what about..."

"Forget about Jack! He doesn't care about you and he's never going to!" The Witch Princess shouted.

"You're lying, he does care about me." Keira said.

"Then why is he does he choose to stay with Nami? Why did he refuse to defy me when I told him to stay away from you? Why did he…" The Witch Princess said before being interrupted by Keira.

"Shut up! Just shut up! I know what I'm going to do." Keira told her.

The Witch Princess stared waiting for her to go on.

Keira wiped the tears that had formed out of her eyes. "I want to…"

The Witch Princess continued to stare.

"I want to go back and be with him... to prove you wrong." Keira told her saying the last part quietly.

Everything around Keira and the Witch Princess suddenly seemed to freeze up.

"What?" The Witch Princess exclaimed angrily.

"I want to go back. I don't want this spell to become permanent!" Keira shouted.

Little by little parts of the room they were in began to disappear.

"Keira, think about what you're doing here. Are you really going to give everything up?" The Witch Princess asked sounding a bit nervous.

"Yes, yes I am." Keira said quietly as she placed her pillow down on her bed and stood up as it disappeared.

"Argh! This wasn't supposed to happen!" The Witch Princess cried.

Keira remained silent.

"Alright, calm down." The Witch Princess said to herself before looking up at Keira. "Take it back Keira."

Keira looked at her surprised. "No…"

"I said take it back!" The Witch Princess hollered as she walked up to her.

"No." Keira said in a stern voice trying to hide the fear she felt at the Witch Princess sudden anger.

"No! No! No! I won't let you take him away from me again!" The Witch Princess screamed surprising Keira.

"What?" Keira asked.

"You think I did this for you don't you?" The Witch Princess asked in a rhetorical like way as Keira continued to look surprised. "Well I didn't, I did this for me."

"What are you talking about?" Keira asked.

"Don't you get it? In order for me to not curse you I had to make it so everything went perfect for me now. Benefiting you just happened to be a nice bonus that I thought you'd enjoy." The Witch Princess explained.

By now most of the room had finally faded away and Keira and the Witch Princess were simply standing in a seemingly endless dark abyss.

"But you, you had to ruin all that didn't you?" The Witch Princess shouted.

"You told me this was my choice and I made it." Keira told her.

"There's still time Keira, you can take it back. Think about your parents, you kingdom, your _life_ here." The Witch Princess said.

"No, I know my parents will respect my choice even if they don't know about it. I'm not taking it back." Keira told her.

"Take it back!" The Witch Princess screamed as she grabbed onto Keira's arms and dug her nails into them. "Take it back!"

"Get off of me!" Keira shouted as she tried to push her away.

"Take it back!" The Witch Princess screamed her red eye's burning with anger.

"No! Now let go!" Keira shouted in pain.

"Take it back!" The Witch Princess shouted again in a much lower voice as she dug her nails in even deeper.

"No, no… I won't…" Keira said as she shut her eyes tightly and began to cry from a mixture of fear and pain.

"_Take it back!"_

* * *

When Keira opened her eyes she was relieved to see she was back in her bed at Jack house. She quickly sat up much to the surprise of Jack who was sitting on a seat next to the bed and caused him to fall over. She watched him as he sat on the floor and rubbed his head.

"You scared me there Keira. Don't worry though I'm fine." He told her as he stood up. "It was getting pretty late and you hadn't woken up yet so I was a little worried."

As he walked back up to the bedside Keira leaned into him and proceed to hug him.

"_Jack, it's really you. I'm back…" _She mouthed happily.

He hesitated for a moment before proceeding to hug her back. "And uh, good morning to you too."

Keira let go of him and looked at him with a smile on.

"You seem pretty happy this morning." He told her.

She picked up her notebook on the nightstand and began to write. "I'm just happy to see you that's all."

He smiled back at her. "That's always nice. So what do you say we have breakfast now?"

Keira nodded her head. "That would be great."

Jack walked over to the kitchen area and it wasn't before long that he finished cooking them breakfast and they sat down at the table and began to eat. As they did Keira would occasionally glance up at Jack and hear the Witch Princess's words _'Forget about Jack, He doesn't care about you and he's never going to,' _echo through her head. She knew she had just said that in order to make her change her mind but she just couldn't get them out of her thoughts. She looked around the room to try and think of something else and noticed that the date on the calendar was circled.

"What's today?" She wrote.

"Today? Today's the starry night festival." He answered.

"Starry night festival? What's that?" She wrote.

"It's kind of a romantic festival. All the people in town get a date for it and share dinner together before going out and looking at the stars all night." He told her a little uneasily.

"So I suspect you're going to go with Nami?" She wrote with a slightly noticeable sad expression on.

Jack turned away a bit looking a little sad himself. "Probably."

"Well you two will have fun I'm sure. I guess I'll just stay here." She wrote making them both upset.

"I-if you want you could come with." He said a little hesitantly.

"It's alright Jack, I'll be fine just staying here." She wrote.

"Come on Keira I don't want you staying here alone all night while the whole town is out celebrating. It wouldn't feel right." He told her.

"If you really want me to then I guess I'll come with." She wrote.

"Great I know you'll enjoy it." He told her.

* * *

The two went about their usual chores as the day progressed with Keira cleaning up the house and Jack taking care of the animals. As night began approach the two met in the house and began to head over to the inn in order to meet Nami for the festival. Keira could tell the Jack was a still a little nervous about how Nami will take it when she sees her with him but he could tell that she herself was nervous about something though he couldn't tell what it was. When they arrived at they at the inn they walked up the stairs and over to the door that lead into Nami's room.

Taking a deep breath Jack knocked on the door.

"Hello Jack. I was expecting you." Nami said happily as she opened the door before noticing Keira partially hiding behind him.

Jack gave an awkward smile. "Hey Na…"

"What is she doing here?" Nami asked a bit harshly.

"Well you see it's the starry night festival tonight and I know it's a night for couples to spend time together…" Jack began a little nervously.

"Yeah, a night for _couples_." Nami said.

"I know but it's just that Keira doesn't have anyone to be with tonight and I don't want her to stay home alone all night so I thought I'd bring her with." Jack finished sounding just as nervous.

"But Jack this is supposed to be a night for just us." Nami complained.

"I know but I just don't want her to be alone." Jack told her.

"I didn't even prepare enough food for three. So unless she leaves we can't eat." Nami told him almost as if using it as a really bad excuse.

"Then I just won't eat, Keira can have my meal." Jack said.

"Jack you don't have to do this. I'll be fine staying at the house tonight." Keira wrote.

"You see Jack? Even she doesn't want to be here right now so just let here leave." Nami said.

"It's alright Keira." Jack told her. "Just let her come with Nami, she's not going to change everything."

"No! Now choose Jack who would you rather spend the night with? Me? Or Keira?" Nami asked angrily.

"Are you being serious right now?" Jack asked sounding a little angry himself.

"Yes now pick!" Nami said.

Jack looked at Nami before looking back at Keira who seemed to be a little confused at the situation taking place in front of her.

"I guess… I'd rather spend the night… with Keira." Jack finally answered surprising both of them.

Nami stared at Jack, both confused and furious, before slamming the door in his face.

"Jack you really didn't have to do that, I wouldn't have been hurt if you choose her." Keira wrote.

"I know but I just want to make sure you feel left out of anything up here. Besides I'm sure if I talk to her later she'll get over it." He told her. "Now come on let's head down to the beach, I'm sure some of the other townspeople are down there already watching the stars."

"Alright." Keira wrote.

* * *

The two left and inn and head towards the beach and sure enough most of the town was there gazing up at the sky. Jack took a seat in the sand near the middle of the beach and Keira soon took a spot beside him. She leaned her head on his shoulder as she begin to think about what her mother had told her about possibly being in love with him and was soon believing that maybe she could have been right. Only a while after they sat there did that all too familiar cold wind began to blow past them as a large flock of menacing clouds began to overtake the skies and block the stars above.

"This isn't fair!" Everyone on the beach heard a voice scream shortly being followed by a rumble of thunder.

There was a quick flash of lighting and the wind circled around near the shore of the beach with the Witch Princess's figure forming in the middle.

"This isn't fair!" She screamed out.

Jack helped Keira up to her feet as they took a few steps back away from her.

"You!" The Witch Princess shouted as she pointed at Jack. "You had to ruin my plan didn't you?"

"What are you talking about?" Jack asked.

"You had to go and make Keira want to come back to this Goddess forsaken future instead of staying in the past like she should have, didn't you?" She shouted.

"Calm down, calm down." Thomas said as he began to approach her. "I'm sure there's a peaceful…"

"Stay out of this!" The Witch Princess screamed as there was another flash of lighting as she glared at him, her eyes once more burning with anger.

"Yes… well then." Thomas muttered as he began to back away in fear.

"Leave Keira alone Witch Princess, your tricks are never going to work." Jack said.

The Witch Princess began to laugh manically. "We'll see about that Jack!"

"There's nothing you can do to hurt anymore." Jack said.

The Witch Princess formed an evil looking grin. "I think I can change that."

There was another low rumble of thunder as her hands began to glow.

"I'll kill her for what she's done to me!" The Witch Princess screamed.

She began to turn her hands into fists and her red eyes seemed to begin to glow.

"No! I won't let you do that!" Jack shouted as he hid Keira behind him.

"Get out of the way Jack!" The Witch Princess shouted.

"No! If you want to hurt her you have to get through me first!" Jack told her.

The Witch Princess began to grind her teeth as she stared angrily at Jack in an effort to scare him off but he refused to move, staring back at her just as serious. She looked around at everyone and saw their expressions of fear and confusion as they stared back at her.

She looked back at Jack and looked into his eyes and suddenly froze up. There was just something in them now, something that she hadn't seen in a long time. That feeling of compassion and care for someone so special that she hadn't seen in someone else's eyes since that fateful day she lost what she had held near and dear to Keira. If she attempted to hurt her and separate her from Jack any further she would only be doing exactly what Keira had done to her. Slowly she began to unclench her fists.

"This… this isn't over…" The Witch Princess said quietly as the clouds above began to disperse.

The Witch Princess began to wrap her arms around herself as she began to slowly cry and disappear.

Once she vanished Jack turned around and faced Keira.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

Keira looked back at him as happy as she could ever be and hugged him.

He hugged her back for a moment before letting go and taking her hand. "Let's get out of here."

Keira nodded her head as he began to lead her towards the beaches entrance.

Just as they were about to leave Jack stopped for a moment and turned around to face everyone.

"Sorry of the little disturbance." He told them before turning back around.

* * *

The two were walking near the turtle pond when Keira stopped.

"Is something wrong?" Jack asked.

Keira looked at him as she heard her mother's voice in her head. _"You love him don't you?"_

"Keira?" He asked.

She looked into his eyes. _"Yes… I do love him mom…" _

"Keira?" He asked again.

She began to write in her notebook. "Jack there's something I need to tell you."

"What is it?" He asked.

She began to write before looking up at him and erasing something. "Jack I think I…"

"You think you what?" He asked.

She took a deep breath before writing again. "Jack, I think I love you."

"You… you love me?" He asked surprised by what he had just read.

Keira leaned into Jack and wrapped her arms around him as she proceeded to kiss him. He seemed to welcome it at first but after a brief moment he pushed Keira way.

"I… I'm sorry. It's just that… I need to…" He said.

Keira looked at him confused.

"I… I'm sorry." He said quietly before walking away.

Keira felt heartbroken as she watched him leave her alone. Had she really given up everything she had ever cared about for nothing. She sat down on one of the logs beside the pond and began to write down in her notebook, trying to protect the pages inside from the tears that fell from her eyes. She was almost done writing down her thoughts when she heard some rustling in the bushes.

"I'll take care of you myself!" She heard someone shout before they jumped out at her.

* * *

**A/N: I know this chapter was kind of long with a lot of stuff happening (some of it even a little ****cliché** in my opinion) in it but the following chapters should be a bit slower. 


	24. Sorrow

When Jack awoke the next morning he wearily got up from his spot on the couch and walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out a jug of milk. He had stayed up late the previous night thinking about how Keira had revealed that she loved him and he was going to do about it. He knew that he had slight feelings for her but unlike her he didn't think that he was actually in love with her. Besides he was already dating Nami so there was no way anything could work between them at the moment. As he poured himself a glass of milk he glanced over at the bed and saw that it was empty before returning to his milk. It took his tired mind a few seconds process the fact that Keira wasn't in the house and as soon as that thought found its way into his head he immediately dropped the milk container on the ground.

"Keira?" He asked as he ran over to the bed.

He looked at it and noticed how it was still made up nicely like they had left it when they had left for the festival, untouched the whole night. Then it suddenly occurred to him, during the whole night he had never heard Keira return home. Based on how she appeared to be feeling when he left her, he believed that she was still probably by the turtle pond sulking and to a degree heartbroken and left the house and headed in that direction.

When he arrived he couldn't have been more disappointed at the fact that she wasn't there like he had hoped she would be. He looked around in the snow for any footprints that could lead him anywhere but the morning snow had buried any chance of that. He sat down on the log that she had sat on after he left and kicked around some of the snow at his feet.

"Stupid… I was so stupid…" He muttered under his breath as he looked at the dead grass he had just uncovered.

He continued to stare at the ground until he noticed something black buried underneath the snow nearby. He bent over and brushed away the snow covering it and couldn't believe what he found.

"Keira's notebook?" He said to himself as he picked it up off the ground.

He brushed off some of the snow that remained on it and did a quick flip through of it to see if it really was hers. As he did he stopped himself at that certain line_ 'I think I love you,' _confirming it was hers. He looked at the cover of the book as he began to wonder why she would just leave it lying around like that. He looked over at the pond next to him and what he saw floating in the water horrified him.

"N-no…" He said quietly as he got up from his seat and walked over to the pond water and removed what was floating in it.

It was Keira's headband.

He clutched it in his hands, draining out some of the water, as he stared into the pond. He looked into it with the grim thought of seeing Keira down at bottom, too saddened by how he had handled the situation between them, but was relieved to see that she wasn't there. But where could she be?

* * *

Jack ran frantically through the town shouting for help. He could have looked for her on his own but the fact that she was missing both her headband and notebook disturbed him enough to think that something was seriously wrong. Eventually the whole town was up and surrounding him, anxious to see what was wrong.

"Ugh, why'd you have to get us all up?" Rock asked wearily.

"Yeah, it's only six thirty in the morning." Griffin said.

"It's Keira, I can't find her anywhere! I found her notebook and headband by the river but I can't find her!" Jack told them.

"You mean like she's missing?" Muffy asked.

"Of course she's missing! Please all of you have to help me find her!" Jack said.

"Is this something we all really have to do?" Daryl asked. "I mean can't you look for her yourself?"

"Please I just know that there's something's wrong. Why would her headband just be floating in the pond with her notebook in the snow beside it?" Jack asked.

"Don't worry we'll look for her, we'll all split up and search the town." Tim told him.

Everyone in town nodded their heads in approval and began to walk off in separate directions as Jack took a seat on the bench nearby, looking down at Keira's headband that was still in his hands.

"It'll be alright." He heard Celia tell him as she took a seat beside him.

He continued to silently stare at the headband.

"Want to tell me what happened?" She asked seeming to understand he was in deep thought about something.

"She… she told me that she loved me last night." He told her quietly.

"What?" She asked sounding surprised.

"She told me that she loved me… and I just left her…" He said.

"You left her?" She asked.

"At the turtle pond, she told me she loved me and then kissed me. I got nervous and told her I was sorry and then I left her there." He explained.

They sat there on the bench for a moment in silence until Nami exited the Inn and walked over to them.

"Hello Jack." She greeted in an unusually happy tone before noticing his current mood. "What's wrong?"

"It's Keira… she's gone missing." Jack told her.

"Really?" Nami asked.

"Yeah, she never came home last night and I found her notebook and headband over by the turtle pond this morning." Jack said causing Nami to become a little uneasy.

"They were just sitting there?" Nami asked uneasily.

"No, her notebook was buried under some snow and her headband was floating in the pond. I just know something bad happened to her, I just know it." Jack told them.

"Jack you have to have faith, maybe she just ran away somewhere." Celia said.

"If she did she probably hates me right now… wherever she is…" He said.

"Jack don't worry I know that someone will find her. The whole town is out looking for her." Celia said in an effort to comfort him.

Almost as if as if she had predicted the future the three began to hear Wally shout for Jack as he ran towards them as fast as he could.

"Jack! Jack!" He shouted as he approached them.

"What is it Wally?" Celia asked as Jack continued to remain lost in the headband.

"We… we... we…" Wally began taking deep breaths between words, exhausted from all the running he had just done.

"What is it?" Celia asked again sounding anxious.

"We… we found her Jack." Wally told them.

Jack looked up as Wally's expression turned into a more unsettling one.

"But I don't think you're going to like it." He told them.

* * *

When the four arrived at the Goddess pond quite a few of the other townspeople were already gathered by the sprite tree. Celia and Wally waited in the crowd as Jack walked up and pushed his way through in order to see what they were all looking at with Nami following closely behind him. At the front beside the bushes next to the tree was Rock with Lumina hiding her face in his shoulder, to upset to look at what was behind the bushes.

"She behind there." Rock told him motioning at the bushes with his head.

Jack pushed aside the shrubbery and instantly froze up when he saw what hid behind them.

"Keira…?" He said quietly with a strong sense of sadness emitting from his voice.

There she was seated with her back against the tree with her head hanging down, her wet hair hanging in front of her face and all messy. Her face and arms were covered with fresh cuts and bruises and her dress was torn in spots with blood stains scattered about it. Most of her dress and skin also appeared to be wet indicating that someone had dragged her around and left her there to what ever fate would come to her. She was still breathing, slowly, but still breathing.

"Keira…" Jack said quietly as he knelt beside her and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Keira?"

She remained motionless for a moment before slowly tilting her shaking head and looking at him, her eyes barley open. He could see the sadness and partial regret deep inside her that was hiding behind her gently brown eyes and the hair that blocked them. She only looked at him for a moment before collapsing into his arms, resting her head on his shoulder, her eyes once again shutting. He could feel her chest gently rise and fall again his.

"Who… who did this?" Jack asked the crowd behind him without looking as he continued to hold Keira in his arms.

They all looked at him, feeling his sadness as Nami began to back into everyone.

"Jack…" She whispered.

"Who did this?" He shouted, this time turning around to look at everyone.

They remained quiet.

"Who? Who would do this to her?" He shouted angrily. "She did nothing to ever hurt any of you so why should you hurt her!"

"Jack calm down." Celia said as she walked to the front of the crowd.

He looked at her angrily for a moment before turning back to Keira and bringing her close to him, whispering 'sorry' into her ear. He felt the cold winter wind blow past everyone and suddenly remembered the words of a certain enemy from the previous night.

"_I'll kill her for what she's done to me!"_

* * *

**A/N: Please R&R**


	25. Sympathy

The Witch Princess bent over and picked up on of her books that lied on her floor. She held it in her hands and looked at it for a moment before looking away from it as she placed it on one of the shelves in her shack. After what had happened the previous night she had become saddened by all the memories of her past that had flooded into her head and was cleaning up her room to try and cope with them.

She had just placed another book on the shelf when the door opened and Jack stormed in, fuming with rage.

"You!" He shouted angrily as he marched up to her.

She ignored his anger and looked at him with her sad expression still on. "What do you want Jack?"

"Don't try to play stupid! I know it was you!" He shouted.

"What are you talking about?" She asked still unaffected by his rage.

"You know what I'm talking about! Why'd you attack Keira?" He asked.

"I didn't attack her; you of all people should know how I left her alone last night." She told him calmly.

"You must think I'm pretty stupid to think that was your only attempt to hurt her last night." He said.

"I didn't do anything; I don't know what you're talking about Jack." She said.

Furious with how she refused to admit to her actions Jack grabbed the Witch Princess and shoved her against the wall.

"Is that why I found her almost dead by the Goddess pond this morning?" He asked angrily as he held onto her.

"Jack I don't know what you talking about!" She told him fearfully.

"Why did you try to kill her?" He asked.

"I didn't!" She told him.

"I know your lying! There's no reason I should trust what you say! You're a witch for Goddess sake! You're supposed to lie and hate, that's all you do! All this time you've been trying to hurt Keira and she's never done anything to you!" He said as he tightened his grip on her.

"You think she's done nothing to hurt me? You think I'm doing this because it's the only thing I know how to do?" She asked becoming more upset than frightened by him.

"She didn't do anything to you! Don't you understand that yet?" He asked.

"You don't think she's done anything to hurt me?" She asked.

He stared at her angrily. "No! I _know _she didn't do anything to you!"

She tried to fight off tears. "Jack, She… she…"

"Out with it!" He shouted.

"She took my fiancé away from me!" She told him painfully.

"W-what?" He asked in a surprised tone as he lightened his grip on her.

"I remember that day perfectly Jack… The day the most important thing in the whole world to me was taken away…" She told him.

"What?" He asked again as he released her.

"I wasn't always so evil Jack." She told him as she walked over to the table and rested her hand on it. "There was a time when someone could actually make me feel happy."

He remained silent.

"My fiancé, I remember what happened with him well. I found him out in the forest near my old house weak and exhausted so I decided to do something nice for once and took him in and cared for him. I tried my best to hide my powers from him as I nursed him back to health but one day I slipped up and ended up accidently using them in front of him and the whole town. I thought he was going to join the angry mob that began to surround me afterwards but instead he stood by my side and defended me. He didn't care that I was a witch and had a past of tormenting people because he knew me better than that. He became my only friend in the world and we both cared for each so much when he proposed to me I actually felt true happiness. A few days before our wedding we were attending a festival in the town just outside of Keira's castle and then that's when it happened. She saw the two of us standing in front of the crowd and walked up to us, that infamous beautiful smile on her face. She talked to us with that enchanting and captivating voice of hers and my husband to be showed her such kindness that she asked if he wanted to dance with her and before I could even say anything he accepted her invitation. I thought that it would be a simple dance and nothing more but I couldn't have been more wrong. I'll never forget that day that I stood there alone up at the altar in tears heartbroken at how he had abandoned me there after everything he had done. A day later I received a letter from him telling me about how he had left me so he could try and get married to Keira after he believed she loved him back. And that's when I felt that strong sense of hate inside of me again. Over the next few days my appearance began to drastically change from all the hate I felt until I looked how I do now and I began to think of how to get back at Keira for what she had done to me. Simply killing her seemed too merciful for what she had done so I did something far worse to her. I stole that precious voice of hers that she had used to steal my fiancé and sent her to a random spot below the surface of her kingdom where I thought she had never return. Word that she was missing traveled quickly throughout and kingdom and soon found its way to my former fiancé who then came to me and begged that I take him back, knowing that I was the one who had sent her away. I could see the regret he felt from his actions and the love he still had for me in his eyes but I was just so heartbroken and angry that I attacked him and he ran away. I just wasn't in control anymore, deep down I truly wanted to forgive him and make him a part of my life again but I just wasn't able to act on those feelings. When you found Keira I at first began to regret my actions concerning her but as I began to remember how happy I was before I met her I felt that hatred for her return to me. It was only last night when I saw how much far you would go to protect her from any harm and I realized she was just like me. She was alone without anyone except for that one special person who would care for her no matter what but unlike my fiancé I knew that you would always be by her side. That's why I didn't do anything last night Jack, I'm done with hurting her. I'm just done." She told him.

"W-witch Princess, I… I had no idea." He said.

She remained silent.

He looked at her still surprised. "It's just that when I found Keira this morning I just thought that it was you who hurt her since…"

"It's ok Jack, I understand how you could think that it was me." She told him truthfully. "It's not that uncommon for me to take the blame for something, especially after what I had done to her already."

He looked at her with a sense of disappointment in himself after the way he had just treated her. "I'm sorry for both your loss and blaming you. But if you didn't attack her who did?"

"I don't know Jack; I don't even know what's wrong." She said.

"I found Keira's headband and notebook by the turtle pond this morning and the whole town found her over by the Goddess pond later. She was attacked by somebody and left for dead there." He explained.

"Where is she now?" She asked sounding concerned.

"I left her in Hardy's care while I came over here. Seeing as you weren't the one who did it I guess I should get back to her and see if she's going to make it." He told her upsetting himself

"You probably should." She told him quietly.

He nodded his head and went over to the door and began to open it.

"Treat her right." The Witch Princess began stopping him. "Don't let her be alone or think you don't care about her. She's been alone for a long time; it means a lot that she could find a friend like you in the world up here."

"Thank you." Jack said to her before turning back to the door. "And sorry."

After he shut the door the Witch Princess walked over to one of the shelves and removed one of her oldest books. She dusted it off the cover revealing the title _"Our Memories." _Slowly she sat down in one of her chairs and began to read.

* * *

As Jack walked back to Hardy's he noticed Nami leaving the Inn with her backpack on and walked over to her.

"Hey Nami." He said as he walked up to her.

"Jack." She said sounding a little startled as she faced him. "What do you want?"

"I was just getting back from talking with the Witch Princess." He told her.

"So did she admit to attacking Keira?" She asked.

"No, she said that she was done trying to hurt her after last night and didn't do and I had no choice but to believe her." He said.

"So do you know who attacked Keira then?" She asked a bit nervously.

"No, I was just on my way to see how she was doing though, want to come with?" He asked.

"I can't." She said rather fast. "I'm going up to Mineral Town for a while and have to get going soon."

"Alright, when will you be back?" He asked.

"I don't know, but I'll be sure to come and visit you when I come back. Well bye." She told him before walking away rather fast.

"I wonder what her rush is." He said to himself before continuing his walk over to Hardy's.

* * *

When he entered the house Hardy was busy washing his hands by the sink and once he was finished he walked over to him.

"Hello Jack." Hardy greeted.

"Hardy, how's she doing?" Jack asked rather concerned.

"As you know she was in pretty bad condition when you brought her here. Hopefully after what I've done she should be able to get better" Hardy told him causing a sense of worry to form on Jack's face.

"Hopefully?" Jack exclaimed.

"She was in near critical condition Jack. She had lost quite a bit of blood and suffered from a lot of physical strikes and what appear to be a few hits from what I'm guessing was a pretty strong stick. Not to mention she was thrown and dragged around for awhile. Her right arm might be broken but I won't know until Doctor Trent arrives and examines it himself. The chance of her surviving seems to be pretty likely though." Hardy explained.

Feeling a little relieved Jack walked over to the bed where Keira lied. Her cuts had been cleaned and bandaged with one wrapped around her head much like her headband. She had a couple of them stitched up and her right arm had been placed in sling cast. She was still asleep as he pulled up a seat and sat beside her.

"I'll leave you two alone." Hardy said as he stepped out.

Jack began to feel relaxed as he watched as the bed sheets slowly rose and fell with each one of Keira's slow breaths. He removed his rucksack and dug through it and pulled out her notebook. Sighing, he opened it and began to read.

* * *

**A/N: What a sympathetic twist right? Sorry for the huge text wall thing but it was pretty necessary to get this chapters main point across. R&R**


	26. Stored Memories

**Pre-note to avoid confusion: This chapter is what Jack is reading from Keira's notebook as implied at the end of the last chapter.**

* * *

Day: Spring 17th

I've never been more afraid of anything in my life. Today my voice was stolen and I was cursed by a witch to live down here in this cavern down below the surface. It's really dark and scary down here without anyone with me. She told me that I would be stuck down here forever but I wonder if that's really possible. I just have to stay calm, I know that once my parents find out about what happened they'll send someone to come and find me I just know it.

Day: Spring 24th

Already a week has gone by since I've been sent to live down here but it feels more like an eternity. There's nothing to do down here but sleep and walk around this small room all day. There hasn't been any sign of anyone making an attempt to come and save me but I can't lose hope yet. I just can't wait for that day when that rock wall in front of my bed comes down and my strong shining knight comes in and saves me. My parents must be worried sick about me but I know that I'll get to see them again someday.

Day: Summer 23 24th?

I'm starting to lose track of what day it is now. It's been over a month since that witch came and cursed me and I'm beginning to get worried. Could I really be down here forever? That witch seemed to be kind enough to let me live without having to eat but that seems to be the limit of her generosity. I have to constantly remind myself to stay calm down here; hopefully it shouldn't be much longer until I'm found.

Day: Unknown

It must have been over a year since I've been up on the surface and I still have seen any sign that I'm going to be found. I'm getting a little worried but I just know I'll be found soon, I just have to be.

Day: Unknown

I'm getting scared! I don't know how long I've been down here but I know it's been ages! That witch was right; I'm going to be down here forever! I want to go home! I want to see my mom and dad again! I want to see all those suitors who followed me around all night and day! More importantly I want my life back! I'm getting weaker each day and I can barely walk around anymore. I wish this was just some horrible nightmare I just wish it was.

Day: Unknown

I don't want to be found anymore. It must have been years since I last stepped foot on the surface and taking another step up there is no longer a hope of mine. I know that by now my father must have finally died due to his illness and everyone probably believes that I must have died as well. I can only image the unbearable pain my mother must suffer from now if she is still alive. By now everyone must have forgotten about me but that doesn't matter anymore. I must accept the fact that I'll never be found.

Day: Unknown

It's has to have been ages since I was sent to live down here and by now I must be forgotten. Every time I fall asleep I end up dreaming about everything I had held dear and lost. I can still see my parents as loving as ever and that vast kingdom of ours still prospering. I know that dreams like that should make me happy but they've just lost their meaning now. I know that I'll never see any of these things again and that I'll never see the world up there ever again. Sometimes I wish that witch had just killed me instead of making me lived down here.

* * *

Day: Unknown

It finally happened, I was found. A nice young man came down in this mine I had apparently been sitting in this whole time and found me. He told me that his name was Jack and that he was a farmer which is strange since when I used to live up on the surface farmers weren't suppose to come to places like this. It seemed to make a bit more sense to why he was here after he told me that my kingdom was finally gone so it appears that the world has changed quite a bit since I last saw it. While he was here I became hungry for a moment so he gave me an apple which couldn't have tasted any better. He left after awhile promising that he would bring me more found so I can only wonder when I'll see him again.

Day: Unknown

Surprisingly Jack came to visit me again today. This morning I was just about starving to death which makes it seem that I need food to survive once again so I couldn't have been happier when he arrived with a plate of my favorite dish, finest curry. After I finished my meal I told him a bit about my past and he offered to take me back up to the surface but I had to refuse his offer. As I told him the world just seems to have changed too much for me to understand right now. Maybe someday I'll be able to live up there again.

Day: Spring Thanksgiving

Jack stopped by once again. He told me about this place called Forget-Me-Not Valley that resides somewhere above my cavern and how everyone up there is friendly and kind to one another. Along with this nice cooked fish he also had with him a few of these sweet little treats that he gave me since today was a festival day known as spring thanksgiving. He told me that it's a day for guys to go and give special treats to the girl they like so does that me he likes me? He's a just a person of average status but I guess he is kind of cute. My parents would probably be a little disappointed with me if they heard me say that I thought a commoner was cute but then again I'm no longer a princess and they aren't around anymore. I hope he comes back and visits me again soon.

Day: Spring 19th

Jack has been so kind to come and visit me every day since he's found me. Each day he brings with him a nicely cooked meal and a story about his life up on the surface. He's told me about all his friends, his farm animals, and other random things about his life up there. It's nice to have him come and visit me but I can't help but feel awful for all this trouble I'm causing him. Each day I see him getting progressively more exhausted and all the fighting he does to get down here can't be good for his health. He seems to see some value in coming down here every day to see me but am I really worth it?

* * *

Day: Spring 20th

I can't believe what happened today. Jack, he asked me to come up to the surface with him and I agreed! When he came down here this morning I told him that it he should stop visiting me every day for his own benefit and he got a little angry and told me that if he did that would mean that I would die. I was so confused with what to say next, which he seemed to notice since the next thing he asked was if I would come up to the surface with him. It took some time for us to get up here but when we did I couldn't have been happier. The valley air up here is so fresh and the sun is just as warm as welcoming as I remembered it. After he introduced me to everyone in town he took me to his house so I'd have a place to stay. It was just a little while ago that he came back inside after stepping out for a moment but I'm not mad at him for waking me up. After all how could I get mad at my savior?

Day: Spring 21st

Today Jack showed me around his farm and explained to me how some of the new things up here on the surface work. A lot of these new things here are a little confusing to me and so much as changed since I was last up here that it makes me wonder if I can really live up here. I'm just a little nervous with the big change that just happened to me but I'm sure that Jack will be able to help me; he did say that he'd be with me every step of the way.

Day: Spring 23rd

Yesterday I suffered from an allergic reaction due to some peaches that were in a fruit juice that mysteriously appeared in front of Jack's house and I'm only now starting to feel a little bit better. Along with that yesterday I also saw that witch who had cursed me long ago. She was standing on the beach behind everyone and looking at me menacingly. Jack said that I was imagining things but I she just looked so real. I hope he's right.

Day: Spring 28th

I'm feeling much better than how I did a few days ago. I'm beginning to regain some of that lost strength in my legs and I don't need Jack's help when I walk around anymore. They way we spend our time with each other has pretty much been the same as when I was down in the mine, we'll have our meals together and talk before he goes out into town and spends time with his girlfriend Nami. I don't really mind though since that gives me time to go out and talk with my new friend Celia. I really enjoy living up here now, there are no crowds of people following me every day, I don't have to worry about always being proper around everybody, and I no longer have to worry about anyone else but myself. I think I actually might enjoy this life more than my previous one.

* * *

Day: Summer 6th

Today was a strange day for Jack. Apparently he went out to the chicken coop and touched one of the chickens inside which caused it to die with a strange laugh in the distance though he says not to worry about it. I also had a chance to talk to Celia today who was a little intrusive concerning my relationship with Jack. She says that the story of how he saved me is romantic and thinks that I have feelings for him, but I just don't feel about him like she thinks I do. I mean sure he makes me happy but I just don't think I'm in love with him. Who knows, maybe that could change one day.

Summer: 20th

It's been a whole season since Jack has brought me up to the surface and things are getting a little strange with his farm. All his crops seem to be dying and all his animals are getting sick. He's been trying so hard to get everything back to health while at the same time still find time for Nami and me. Nami and Jack, they make such a nice couple. I wonder how Jack and I would look as a couple.

Day: Summer 23rd

So much happened between me and Jack today. It all started with this dream I had where the witch who cursed me, apparently know as the Witch Princess, came and talked to me. She told me that I stole something from her which led to her cursing me and that one of her friends is Jack, my Jack. I don't know what I could've stolen from her to make her so mad but what mattered more to me at that moment was how Jack was her friend. In the morning I told him about my dream and he admitted to being her friend which almost broke my heart. I went over to the Goddess pond and sat there alone for a while until Celia came and talked with me. I told her about what had happened and she convinced me that Jack was just trying to protect me. When I came back to the farm he told me himself that he didn't tell me in order to protect my feelings. I was really lucky to be found by someone who cares about me that much.

Day: Summer 24th

Today I spent the fireworks festival with Celia and her friends from out of town. When she introduced me to them they all thought that Jack and I were a couple, probably because of something Celia had told them. I told them that we weren't which made them a bit upset since they seemed to welcome that idea of me and Jack being together. After the fireworks were done I decide to come back to the house only to see that Jack wasn't home yet, probably off with Nami somewhere. I wonder if they ever talk about me when there together. I mean the way that I'm always close to him and occasionally giving him those little looks must not look good to Nami.

* * *

Day: Summer 25th

Jack had the nerve to actually make fun of me today. This morning when we were getting ready to go on a walk he called me old and almost made me cry by reminding me of my previous time up here on the surface. I stormed off over to the Goddess pond again with him following me. He tried to deny that he hurt me but eventually apologized and told me that it won't happen again. I don't know why he chose to make fun of me but I believe him when he says that he won't do it again.

Day: Summer 29th

Jack's been acting so weird lately. He'll be acting fine one moment and then suddenly he just freezes up before continuing whatever he does. It seems normal at first but whenever I try to talk to him he get's incredibly defensive and tells me nothing is wrong. I really want to believe that he is telling me the truth but I just can't help but feel something's wrong.

Day: Fall 3rd

I can't believe what Jack did today. He hit me. He just hit me just because I wouldn't show him my notebook. He said that he's been watching me as I write these little journal entries at night which makes me wonder why he was even watching me write in the first place. Either way I just can't believe that of all people in this valley he ended up being the one who would go as far enough to hit me. After he did I ran over to Celia's who's allowing me to stay with her until Jack can come to his senses. I just don't get it, he found me down in the mine after years of solitude and risked his health everyday to make sure I survived then he brings me up to the surface and gives me a home and now this.

Day: Fall 18th

Ever since that day when he hit me Jack has been avoiding me. Since I've started staying at Celia's I've barely left the house but when I was attending the harvest festival I tried to go and talk to him but he just walked away from me. Every so often he stops by to buy seeds from someone here as I watch him from the distance as he refuses to even look over at me. It breaks my heart to have to deal with this pain. Maybe things would've been better for me if I was just never found and still lived down in the mine.

Day: Fall 25th

I couldn't have been happier today when I learned that it was the Witch Princess fault that Jack had been hurting me. She had been possessing him this whole time with this potion of hers and was the one who was in control when he hit me. I just knew that he wouldn't hurt me after everything we've been through, I just knew it. Thanks to Celia's help we were somehow able to break the spell on him and return him to normal. Since he can't be controlled anymore I've decided to move back in with him though he is a little concerned that the Witch Princess might try something again but I don't care. Just the thought of being separated from him any longer is unbearable to me.

Day: Winter 13th

It's been almost half a year since I've come up to live on the surface and I think I'm beginning to grow rather attached to Jack, and not just because he's my savoir anymore. All this kindness and compassion he's shown me is so much more than anything I could've received from anyone back in my old kingdom. Looking back Celia was right, the way he would come down at the expense of his health was romantic and beautiful and I couldn't be more grateful to be found by him. It disappoints me to see him spending time with Nami but I can't help but feel that trying to come between them will only lead to trouble. Until I can find the right time to tell him about my feelings I just have to keep acting like I'm not interested in him.

Day: Winter 24th

I can't believe it. After Jack puts his life on the line in order to protect me from the Witch Princess I tell him that I love him and then he just leaves me tell me that 'he's sorry'. Last night the Witch Princess gave me the option of changing time to make it as if she had never cursed me and yet I chose to come back here to the valley. I gave up seeing my parent's again, all my power, my old life, and everything just to come back to be with him. I should have told him about my choice then maybe he would have been more understanding. I don't know if I can go back and see him again after what just happened, I just don't know how he'll feel if…

* * *

**A/N: It was a little hard to write this chapter but I think I pulled it off. R&R.**


	27. Shining Knight

Jack carefully shut that notebook as he looked at Keira, still asleep in the bed, as a few stray tears began to form in his eyes.

"_She… she gave everything up to be with me?"_ He thought to himself. _"And I rejected her…"_

He placed his hand on her forehead and brushed away the strands of hair that covered it before stroking her wet hair.

"Keira... please wake up. Please." He whispered.

She continued to lay asleep

"I'm sorry… I... I shouldn't have left you… I should have stayed with you and showed you that I do care." He continued.

She began to wince in pain, her eyes shutting tighter as a small pain formed in Jack's heart from the sight.

"Keira please wake up… I don't want to see you like this…" He whispered.

She let out a deep breath before becoming less tense.

He stared at her painfully. "Please… please don't leave me…"

She stopped breathing.

"Keira…" He said quietly.

Jack felt his heart begin to shatter when Keira refused to move any further. He looked down at her notebook as tears began to fall on the cover before he buried his face against. He kept it there for a moment before looking back up at her. Then suddenly she began to breathe again.

"Keira…" He said again.

She slowly turned her head and opened her eyes half way as Jack began to form a smile, paralleling the scene from when they had first met down in the mine. She struggled to form a smile back at him and soon looked away from him, emitting a sense of disappointment with herself.

"It's ok Keira, you didn't do anything wrong." Jack said.

She looked at him with that disappointed expression still on.

He looked at the notebook hesitantly for a moment before looking back at her. "I read your little diary entries... Did, did you real give up a chance at your old life to be with me?"

Her expression suddenly changed to one of shock at the fact that he had read her diary entries.

"I didn't read these to invade your privacy. It's just that I know that you've been writing about your feelings for me in here and I just wanted to see if you meant what you said last night." He told her

She looked at him sincerely.

"Do you really care about me enough that you're willing to give up everything in order to be with me?" He asked.

She hesitated for a moment before nodding her head as he began to smile again.

"I'm so sorry about what I did to you last night. If I had know that then I would haven't have left you. I would have stayed and protected you from whatever happened to you." He said.

She finally smiled back at him.

He smiled for a moment before becoming a bit more serious. "Do you want to tell me about what happened last night?"

She thought for a moment before taking a deep breath and nodding her head again.

He handed her the notebook and she stared at it for a moment before looking at her injured arm and then looking back at him.

"Here, I know what to do." Jack told her.

He took her left hand and placed around his right hand while holding the notebook open in front of her with his left one.

"Just guide my hand." He told her.

She nodded her head and began to write.

* * *

_Previous night _

_Keira sat on the log near the turtle pond writing in her notebook when she heard rustling in the bushes in front of her._

"_I'll take care of you myself!" She heard a voice shout from behind them. _

_Keira stood up and stepped away from the log as Nami jumped out at her._

"_Nami? What are you doing?" Keira wrote._

_Without answering Nami took a swing at her but she stepped back to avoid it. Keira began to write in her notebook._

"_But that damn notebook away!" Nami shouted as she smacked it out of Keira's hands into the snow beside the log._

_Keira stepped back in fear and tripped on the snow behind her._

"_There's nothing to be afraid of__." Nami said as she walked up to Keira as she back into a tree. "Aw come on, you're making this too easy."_

_Nami grabbed onto Keira and began to drag her over to the pond as she tried to break free._

"_You think you can take Jack away from me don't you?" Nami asked angrily._

_She grabbed the back of her head and shoved it into the pond and began to hold it under the water. Keira held her breath for as long as she could as she struggled to get out but her efforts only resulted in her headband falling off and floating away. Just as Keira began to run out of breath Nami lifted her head out of the water and threw her to the side. _

"_No, killing you would be a little too extreme." Nami said as Keira lay on the ground nearby struggling to breath._

_When Keira looked back at Nami she soon found herself getting struck in the forehead by a large stick, creating a large cut on her forehead._

"_You think you're so special don't you? You think you can do whatever you want just because you used to be some stupid princess?" Nami asked rhetorically as she continued to attack her._

_At some point Keira was eventually knocked unconscious but she could still feel as Nami continued to strike her and then eventually drag her around on the frozen ground. She began to open her eyes as Nami leaned her against the sprite tree. _

"_I'll just leave you here, maybe if you're lucky someone will find you. Or maybe not." Nami said before walking away._

"_This… this is it… I'm going to die..." Keira thought as her head began to droop down. "I'm sorry mom, dad, I should've stayed with you… Jack doesn't care about me… I… I'm just sorry…"_

_She attempted to raise her arm in order to place her hand over her heart but immediately felt an unbearable pain inside of it. She looked down at her torn dress as she felt the blood from her wounds drip down her body._

"_Someone… anyone... please… don't… don't let me die out here alone…"_

_Her eyes shut._

* * *

"Nami? She did this to you?" Jack asked sounding surprised.

"Yes." Keira wrote.

Jack looked away. "And to think I let her get away."

"What?" She wrote.

"Before I came in I saw Nami. She said that she was going up to Mineral Town and I just let her go. If I had know she did this to you I would have never let her go… I-I would've…" He began getting progressively angrier with each word until he felt Keira begin to move his hand again.

"It's ok Jack." She wrote.

"I have to go and tell someone." He said.

"No, please don't leave me." She wrote stopping him.

He looked at her and he could see that she desperately wanted him to be by her side.

"I don't want you to leave me, not yet." She wrote.

"What is it?" He asked.

"I want to apologize, for the way I treated you when we first met." She wrote.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"The way I called you peasant and didn't appreciate you as much as I do now. I was wrong Jack, you were that shining knight that I had always hoped would come and rescue me, it just took me so long to realize that it was you." She wrote.

"Do you really mean that?" He asked.

"Jack I just wish I could tell you how much I love you." She wrote.

"I think I was wrong myself Keira. Maybe, maybe I do care about you more than I think I do." He told her.

She smiled.

"No, I-I know I do. I knew there was something special about you since I first saw you. I don't want you to be alone in this world Keira, I'm always going to be with you." He said.

"Do you really mean it?" She wrote.

"Yes." He replied. "You go ahead and get some sleep while I go and tell someone about Nami, you need to get your strength back. But I promise that the moment you open your eyes I'll be the first thing you see."

"Thank you Jack." Keira wrote.

Keira removed her hand from Jack's as she rested her head against her pillow while he placed the notebook in his rucksack again. He stood up from his seat and leaned into her and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"I'll see you in a bit." He told her.

* * *

**A/N: I had this chapter done since I felt you should be able to "see" what happened to Keira at the end of the Starry Night Festival. Just got one chapter left here.**


	28. Sweet Ending

As soon as Jack shut the door to Hardy's house he immediately began to make his way down the path towards Mineral Town, passing Doctor Trent on the way up the hill. He knew he had told Keira that he was simply going to tell someone about what Nami had done but the way Keira had described their encounter made him feel more like confronting her himself. When he arrived he quickly walked over to the inn where he believed she would be. Inside it was pretty quiet with Doug standing behind the counter and Ann cleaning up some of the tables scattered about the room.

"Hello." Jack said.

"Hello there, how can I help you?" Doug asked.

"I was wondering if a red haired girl came in here recently." Jack answered.

"You mean Popuri?" Doug asked.

"No, red hair not pink, the girl I'm looking for isn't from here." Jack told him.

"You mean Nami?" Ann asked as she looked over at him.

"Yes, have you seen her?" Jack asked.

"I saw her walking over towards the beach just a few minutes ago." Ann told him. "Is something wrong?"

"Nami, she tried to kill Keira last night and now she's trying to run away." Jack explained.

"That sounds like something you should tell Officer Harris." Doug said.

"Officer Harris?" Jake asked.

"He's the police officer here. I can get him for you if you want." Ann told him.

"Alright, go find him and tell him to meet me at the beach as soon as he can." Jack said before heading towards the door.

He exited the inn and ran down the path over to the signpost and went in the direction that pointed towards the beach. When he arrived he immediately took note of Nami who was standing at the end of the dock looking a little uneasy.

"Nami!" He shouted as he stormed up to her.

"J-Jack what brings you here?" She asked sounding a little nervous.

"You know why I'm here Nami!" He shouted.

"I-I-I really have no idea Jack." She replied attempting to calm herself down.

"I know you're the one who attacked Keira last night!" He said.

"Me? I didn't do it. I-I have no reason to hurt her. It was…" She began before taking a closer look at Jack and realizing that he wasn't going to believe her. "It was… it was me…"

"Why'd you do it? She never did anything to you." He said.

"She was trying to take you away from me Jack." She explained.

"So you tried to kill her?" He asked angrily.

"I-I didn't know what to do ok, I was angry alright." She told him as Harris began to walk up to them.

"What seems to be the problem here?" Harris asked.

"Her." Jack replied pointing at Nami. "She… she tried to kill my friend last night."

"You're, you're turning me in?" Nami asked Jack sounding surprised.

"I have to Nami. I'm sorry." Jack replied.

Nami began to back away to the edge of the dock, looking down at the water below.

"Nami there's nothing you can do, just please give up." Jack said.

She took a deep breath. "Alright Jack, I'll go peacefully."

Harris walked up to her and placed his hand on her back. "Come on now."

He began to escort her away but as she pasted Jack she stopped for a moment and looked at him with a regretful look on. "I'm sorry Jack."

* * *

Now that Nami had been dealt with Jack began to make his way back towards the path leading down to Forget-Me-Not Valley but he was soon stopped by Ann.

"Jack wait up!" She shouted to him.

"Wait is it Ann?" He asked.

"My dad got a call from Trent from down in the Valley. He said that your friend Keira has to come up here for some more medical attention and that you should stay here for the night." She told him.

"Alright then, can I stay at the inn?" He asked.

"Of course. Come on, I'll get you a room." She told him.

The following morning Jack headed over to the hospital where Hardy, Trent, but more importantly Keira waited for him. According to Trent, Keira's arm was indeed broken and a small amount of surgery had to be done before it could be placed in a cast and few of her cuts required some more stitching. She couldn't help but feel scared as Trent prepared to operate but Jack stood by her bed side holding her better hand. He knew that this was likely the first time she had ever experienced something like a surgery and tried his best to keep her calm. As Trent began to apply the anesthetic Jack felt her tighten her grip on his hand.

"Don't worry Keira; you're going to be alright." He told her.

As her eyes began to slowly close she watched as Jack formed a reassuring smile for her.

Once she woke up she was relieved to see Jack waiting beside the bed with that smile still on his face. He told her that he was grateful that she would be able to fully recover from her injuries and that he was never going to leave her side again. He said that they'd be staying in Town for a while as she recovered and when they return back to the Valley they'd take care of some unfinished business.

* * *

_Spring 17th_

"Are you ready?" Jack asked Keira as they stood outside of the shed beside Romana's house.

He looked over at her and couldn't help but smile at how much better she looked. She was no longer covered in bandages and once again had her traditional headband in her hair. Most of her cuts were beginning to fade away expect for a few scars and the holes and tears in her dress had been patched up a bit.

"Yes, I'm ready." She wrote.

Jack knocked on the door and after a brief moment the Witch Princess came and opened it.

"Jack, Keira I didn't think I'd see you two again." The Witch Princess said sounding surprised.

"Why not?" Jack asked.

The Witch Princess stepped aside and let them in and Jack immediately took notice of the house's empty appearance. The various books, papers, and potions that once laid around on the shelves and floor were all gone along with the large cauldron that sat in the middle of the room with only a few pieces of furniture remaining inside.

"What's going on here?" Jack asked.

"I… I'm leaving…" The Witch Princess answered sounding rather sad.

"What?" Jack asked.

"I just can't stay here anymore Jack; I've caused too much trouble for everyone." The Witch Princess told him.

"That doesn't matter, I told Keira about what you told me last time we talked and she forgives you." Jack told her.

"I'm not just leaving because I feel bad about what I've done Jack. I just know that every time I see Keira I'll get reminded about my past and I just want to get away from all those thoughts." The Witch Princess said.

"But where are you going to go?" Jack asked.

"I don't know. I'm just going to set out and try and find someone who will accept me for who I am, like you and my former fiancé did before I caused all this trouble." The Witch Princess said to him before turning to Keira. "I'm sorry for everything I've ever done to hurt you Keira."

"I'm sorry about what I did to you too. If I had known that it would have ruined your relationship and life I never would have danced with your fiancé. But I can't help but thank you for what you did to me. If you had never cursed me to live down in the mines I never would have been able to meet Jack." Keira wrote.

As the Witch Princess began to form a smile her appearance began to change, signaling the end of her hateful feelings towards Keira.

"Then you're welcome Keira." She said before turning back to Jack. "I know you'll take good care of her Jack."

He began to smile back at her as the rest of the objects in the room began to disappear. By the time everything was gone she had finally regained her original appearance with her long brown hair that matched her eyes and her old red dress had replaced her gray one.

"I guess this is goodbye. I'll miss you two." She said.

There was a brief flash of light and when it cleared not only was the Witch Princess gone but Keira's appearance had slightly changed as well. All of her scars and remaining cuts were gone and her dress had been completely restored.

"I guess she's not that bad after all huh?" Jack asked as he turned to her as she dropped her notebook on the floor and began to slowly place her hands over her throat. "What's the matter Keira?"

"_A parting gift… friend…"_

She looked at him with tears of happiness forming in her eyes. "Jack… it's… it's my voice."

**The End

* * *

**

**A/N: And so this story finally meets it's end. This was a pretty large step from how I had originally planned it but I had fun writing it none the less and I can tell most of you enjoyed reading it. I'm happy to have written a full length story for Keira here and I hope she get's some more stories soon. If she doesn't then don't worry, I got a decent idea for another one you'll probably end up seeing in the future at some point.**

**Till next time.**


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